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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22988524">may these memories break our fall</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius'>SunshineScorpius</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>James Sirius Potter and His Disastrous Love Life [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne &amp; Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Chaser - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, International Schools, James struggles with love, James-centric, M/M, Quidditch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:06:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>45,012</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22988524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As his Seventh year draws to a close, James Sirius Potter wants nothing more than to go out with a bang. He wants to be scouted by Puddlemere United, win the International Schools Quidditch Tournament (where he’s star Chaser), get up to mischief with his friends, finish fixing the bond with his little brother, pass his N.E.W.Ts and somehow find love. Too bad his love life is a little bit more than a disaster, his grades are rapidly falling, and he never seems to be able to do the right thing that will fix everything.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Sirius Potter/Original Female Character(s), James Sirius Potter/Original Male Character(s), Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>James Sirius Potter and His Disastrous Love Life [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652107</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>89</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. our lives would never be the same</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's finally here, my first multi-chapter James Sirius centric fic :) I've been working on this a very long time and I really hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :) Thank you!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>'Cause for a moment, a band of thieves<br/>
In ripped up jeans got to rule the world</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>[Long Live by Taylor Swift]</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>#</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>“Settle down, settle down,” Headmistress McGonagall spoke through a Sonorus charm. The chatter of the hall quietened to a low rumble before it stopped altogether. James settled in his seat, looking up to see a few snowflakes falling from the enchanted ceiling. He loved this time of year: the cold, the snow, Christmas and his family, there was nothing better. But Christmas was over and they were back to school for the remainder of his Seventh year, and his N.E.W.Ts were just around the corner.</p><p>But, that was all so unimportant. Because the words about to come out of Headmistress McGonagall’s mouth were ones he’d been anticipating since his third-year and he knew when the time came back around, he would not only be old enough but also much more skilled.</p><p>“As I mentioned at the welcoming feast earlier this year, Hogwarts has been chosen to host this years International Schools Quidditch Tournament.” As predicted the hall broke out into chatter again, just like it had when she had announced it the first time. James wished everyone would shut up so she could finish speaking, desperate to hear the schools they’d been competing against. And more importantly if James had made the team.</p><p>The Hogwarts team try-outs were before Christmas. It didn’t matter what status you held in your house team, anyone was allowed to try-out. James had a Chasing spot pretty much guaranteed to him – being a Gryffindor Chaser for four years and Captain for two. But he was pretty anxious to learn whether or not Scorpius Malfoy had made Seeker. Scorpius was his brothers’ best friend and recently appointed boyfriend, and he could fly. Though he’d been rejected from his own houses team because no one wanted a Malfoy on their team – no matter how good he was. James would take Scorpius any day with his talent.</p><p>“The International Schools Quidditch Tournament, or the I.S.Q.T, was introduced four years ago for the first time, where four international schools are chosen to compete in Quidditch tournaments, the winning school being awarded a trophy,” McGonagall explained. But it wasn’t the trophy that James was interested in. James was interested in the scouts that each game brought in. Four years ago, Ingrid Highweather had been scouted for the Appleby Arrows and was now up the National English team.</p><p>“The seven members chosen to represent Hogwarts and to form one team are as follows: the Chasing positions go to James Potter of Gryffindor,” – James let out a relieved sigh and a broad smile donned his cheeks as his friends and family roared and cheered, patting him on the back. He saw his brother, Albus, across the room standing and clapping for him, Scorpius next to him with just as much of a proud smile. “Kiara Goodyear of Hufflepuff and Rose Granger-Weasley of Gryffindor.”</p><p>The other two girls were cheered for too and James embraced his cousin in a bone-crushing hug. He knew just how much she wanted the Chasing position as well. When the room had settled again, McGonagall spoke up. “The Beaters are William Hudson of Ravenclaw and Mia Hudson of Hufflepuff.” Twins, James recalled. And damn good players from what he knew of them. “The Keeper is Yann Fredericks of Gryffindor.” James joined in on the claps, relieved that two of his own Quidditch team have so far made the Hogwarts team.</p><p>“And finally, the Hogwarts seeker will be…” James held his breath. He caught Scorpius’ eye across the room and winked at him. Scorpius half-smiled, seemingly not breathing himself. Albus’ hands were clasped desperately in his. The pause seemed to last for a lifetime, the hall in complete silence. It was no secret Scorpius tried out, and it was no secret that absolutely no one but James, Albus and the rest of the Weasley’s wanted him to make it. Luckily, it was the teachers who were the judge.</p><p>“Scorpius Malfoy of Slytherin.”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>Not a single utter of a cheer, not even a single word spoken. James rolled his eyes and stood up, climbing onto the bench and clapping and whooping loudly. Albus quickly joined in, stepping on his own bench and clapping loudly. Then Lily, then Rose and Hugo and the rest of their Weasley cousins were all stood and clapping for him. Scorpius buried his head in his hands, but James could see the ghost of a smile behind it. Professor Longbottom joined in too, as slowly the rest of the school clapped along reluctantly.</p><p>James saw Scorpius pull on the bottom of Albus’ robes, begging for him to get down. It was McGonagall who had to raise her voice through a Sonorus to get everyone to calm down – James was thankful for his extremely large and accepting family at that very moment. When the room had finally settled again, McGonagall began addressing the room.</p><p>“Now you are all aware of your own team, it’s time to meet the other school teams. First, all the way from New Zealand, The Ohau Institute of Magic!”</p><p>The Great Hall doors flung open as seven wizards and witches on brooms came flying in, exploding fireworks as they did and doing various tricks. James could barely focus on all of them, and for a moment didn’t see the remaining seven students walking in perfect formation down the Great Hall between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, their headmistress striding gracefully behind them. The students above donned their schools Quidditch uniform, whilst the ones walking held brooms in their hands each with a different members name engraved on it. James guessed the flying students were the chosen members of the Quidditch team.</p><p>Their uniform was a deep purple with silver linings, their names and numbers printed on the back in silver thread. At first glance, they were a team of four boys and three girls and if he had to be honest, the blond boy was a little wonky on his broom. James smirked. New Zealand were going to be a walk in the park.</p><p>The students finally settled, coming down from their brooms and taking a big bow as the seven walking students and headmistress reached the end of the hall. McGonagall greeted them all kindly before showing them their seats. Ohau were to sit at the end of the Gryffindor table for now and James sent them a friendly wave and a smile. Competition or not, he still wanted them to feel welcome.</p><p>“The second school is Castelobruxo from Brazil!” Professor McGonagall announced.</p><p>A darkness appeared over the room as the Great Hall doors were once again flung open. Seven students – who James assumed were the team – formed a perfect triangle formation, no doubt their Captain up front. He was handsome, that was James’ first thought. His dark hair was cut short at the sides, leaving a mess of hair on top and falling in front of his eyes and even from this distance, James could see his striking blue eyes. Someone elbowed James and he forced his gaze away, coughing awkwardly.</p><p>He kept his head down, not bothering to watch the routine of Castelobruxo because he could feel the blush on his cheeks and he’d only seen one of them. Instead, James decided to let the rest of the team stake them out, hoping to find any weaknesses. Castelobruxo were seated at the end of the Slytherin table, and James looked up just in time to see Albus (who always sits at the end) shuffle closer to Scorpius, practically sitting on his lap. Scorpius wrapped an arm around his shoulder and gave him a tight squeeze and James found himself thinking, not for the first time, how thankful he was that Albus had Scorpius Malfoy in his life.</p><p>“And finally, we have Ilvermorny all the way from North East America!”</p><p>For the final time that evening, the doors to the Great Hall opened to reveal the students of Ilvermorny, a wizarding school located in America. They stood in rows of three, the middle row donned in Quidditch uniform whilst the outer two layers were dressed in some sort of Cheerleading costume like in those American muggle films Lily and Lucy love so much.</p><p>The Cheerleaders began a chant of some kind that was way too bubbly and loud for James to even comprehend. Throw in some fancy gymnastics and dance moves and James was too stunned to look away but also slightly scared of the Americans. Their chant continued – something about Ilvermorny being the greatest – all down the aisle until they reached the front and took a bow. The Quidditch team ended in some form of pyramid and on top was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen in his entire life.</p><p>She had beautifully long blonde hair – a shade surprisingly close to Scorpius’ but definitely not natural – that nearly reached her waist. She was rather petite and glowed brighter than the sun with the smile she wore on her lips. When she did a flip from the top of the pyramid, James’ heart flipped all the same.</p><p><em>“You fall in love far too easily, James,”</em> his little brother had told him over the holidays. <em>Well, Albus,</em> James thought, <em>I could really use some of that bubble wrap right about now.</em></p><p>He followed the girl with his eyes until she sat down at the Ravenclaw table, and his cousin Fred elbowed him and brought him back to attention, winking at him slightly. James nudged him back rather harshly.</p><p>Professor McGonagall wrapped up the speeches and wished them all a warm welcome – and welcome back – to Hogwarts before a spread of food was brought to the tables, making the newcomers gasp. There’s no feast quite like a Hogwarts feast. Even the first years still seem a little shocked at the amount of food around them. James piled food onto his plate before digging in, half-joining in on the banter around him from his school friends.</p><p>James and his friends were sort of legendary at Hogwarts, famous for their school pranks throughout the year and never getting caught for it (James had a strong incline at Professor McGonagall knew <em>exactly</em> who was conducting the pranks and simply chose to overlook it). Freddie Weasley, James’ cousin, was without a doubt their ringleader, choosing to live up to his namesake by conducting Fred-and-George-Weasley-style pranks. Zachary Finnigan-Thomas was the brains of the operation, coming up with the best ways to conduct Freddie’s pranks without getting caught. Finally, Penelope ‘Nelly’ Nickol, the only girl in their small group and the only one in another house. Nelly was a Hufflepuff and kept them all grounded – making sure the power didn’t go to their head.</p><p>“I hate when they make us sit in our houses,” Nelly said, snapping James from his thoughts and plonking herself opposite him. Nelly looked at him. “I heard Lexi dumped you over Christmas.”</p><p>“Ooh, watch it, Nel,” Freddie said, wrapping an arm around James’ shoulder. “That’s still a sore spot for little Jamie here.”</p><p>James shoved him off. “It’s not a sore spot, I’m totally over it,” he said, only half lying. He <em>was</em> over Lexi, but that didn’t mean the break-up didn’t sting a little. All three of his friends looked at him with raised eyebrows clearly not believing his statement. James rolled his eyes and took a sip of his water. He caught eyes with a couple of the Ohau Quidditch team and he smiled at them and waved before turning back to his friends. “We should probably say hi in a bit, they’re staying in our dormitories after all,” James said.</p><p>“In Gryffindor?” Zac asked.</p><p>James looked at him. “Obviously, were you not listening to McGonagall?”</p><p>“Nah. But yeah, we’ll say hi. Make friends with the enemy,” he winked at James.</p><p>“Hardly the enemy,” Nelly spoke, nudging Zac. “Although there are three Gryffindor members on the Hogwarts team, I’d say Slytherin get it best.”</p><p>“Or you,” Freddie reminded. “You don’t have any school invading your common room.”</p><p>“I meant because there’s only one Slytherin in the team,” Nelly pointed out as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.</p><p>James looked over to the Slytherin table again, catching Scorpius and Albus speaking with their heads together. Then, they both stood up and decided to leave, their hands clasped tightly together and walking practically on top of each other. Neither of them did well in social situations. As much as Scorpius liked to try and make friends, he’d recently stopped as he always made a mess of it, and Albus has never felt comfortable in big crowds, especially if there were people they didn’t know. James guessed they were escaping the suffocating walls of the Great Hall.</p><p>“How do you feel about that?” Yann Fredericks asked, butting into their conversation. James didn’t realise how close he and Rose were sitting to his group of friends.</p><p>James looked at him a shrugged. “What do you mean?”</p><p>“Malfoy, you know, being on the team.” All of James’ friends exchanged glances, knowing exactly how James could be and how riled up he got when someone suggested something bad about his brother or his best friend.</p><p>“Should I be bothered?” He asked, staring directly at Yann. He knew the other boy tended to give Albus and Scorpius a hard time whilst here and he was not going to let that happen anymore.</p><p>“Well, he’s a Malfoy.”</p><p>“And a damn good person and Seeker. Fredericks, if you have a problem with Scorpius being on the team, I suggest you go to McGonagall and tell her that, I’m sure we can find another Keeper.” Zac let out a low whistle and Nelly had a proud smile on her face.</p><p>Yann looked stunned for a moment before he recovered and shook his head. “I don’t have a problem.”</p><p>James smiled arrogantly. “I thought as much.”</p><p>Yann returned to his meal whilst James triumphantly basked in his win. Freddie nudged him with his shoulder and let out a little proud chuckle. The four friends lost themselves to great food and light-hearted conversation once again, sharing stories of their Christmases and how family is both the best and worst part of the famous holiday. Before they knew it, Professor McGonagall was dismissing them to their common rooms for the evening and James realised they never got a chance to say hi to the students from Ohau.</p><p>They said their goodbye’s to Nelly in the Entrance Hall and watched her leave in the opposite direction before taking the enchanted stairs to the common room. They were one of the last ones there, but somehow still managed to secure their regular seats on the sofa near the fire – it was sort of known as <em>their </em>spot. The three of them collapsed onto the sofa, joining a few of James’ other cousins who were also sat around the fire.</p><p>Lily was in the corner with her friends, speaking to a couple members of the Ohau students who weren’t a part of the Quidditch team. Lily desperately wanted to make the team as well, but sadly the rules were that only fifth years and up were allowed to join the team, meaning Lily would have to wait four years for the next one, that’s if Hogwarts are chosen to participate. She caught James’ eye, smiling and waving at him and James returned the gesture.</p><p>“Did you do the assignment for Professor Flitwick?” Zac asked, throwing his legs over both James and Freddie.</p><p>“No, no way are we talking about assignments on our first day back,” Freddie said, waving his arms dramatically.</p><p>“It’s due tomorrow,” Zac reminded.</p><p>“I don’t care if it’s due tomorrow, no assignment talk.”</p><p>“You didn’t do it, did you, Freddie?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>James let out a snorted laugh, shaking his head at his cousin. Freddie didn’t seem bothered over this fact, despite the assignment being worth a part of their final grade. Instead, he pushed Zacs’ legs off him and stood dramatically.</p><p>“There are more important things to discuss, such as the end of year prank we’re going to pull. Graduation is six months away, we need to start prepping,” he reminded, gesturing wildly. James heard his cousin Dominique snort from her armchair where she was sat with her best friend. They met eyes and both rolled their eyes and their cousin. “We should ask Louis to help out.”</p><p>“Louis won’t help out,” James said, referring to their other cousin in their year, Louis, who was sorted into Ravenclaw. “He’s a goody two shoes.”</p><p>“But it’s his final year too, he must have some Weasley in him,” Freddie said by way of argument.</p><p>James threw his hands up in surrender. “Ask him then.”</p><p>Freddie spun on his heels. “Domi, do you want to be a part of the greatest prank Hogwarts has ever seen?”</p><p>Domi scoffed. “Absolutely not. I will not risk being expelled before my N.E.W.T year, you guys are fine because you would have graduated already.”</p><p>“Have a little faith in us, little cousin.”</p><p>“You’re on your own, Fred.”</p><p>“Did someone say prank?” Someone with a thick New Zealand accent interrupted, causing all conversation to come to a halt as they turned to face whoever spoke. There were two boys standing at the end of the sofa donned in the Ohau schools Quidditch uniform. James took this as his perfect opportunity and jumped from the sofa, knocking Zacs’ legs off him too with an<em> ‘oof’.</em></p><p>“We did, it’s sort of our thing. I’m James Potter,” he stuck his hand out.</p><p>The first boy who had spoken shook his hand. “I’m Sean, this is Tom,” he spoke.</p><p>“Freddie and Zac,” James introduced his friends for him. “So, you’re part of your schools team?”</p><p>“We are, I play Seeker, Tom here plays Beater.”</p><p>“That’s great. I’m a Chaser on the Hogwarts team, I’m actually looking forward to seeing you guys play, that entrance was pretty incredible,” James complimented. Sean smiled pretty widely and James thought he saw a blush creep upon his cheeks. James invited them to sit down, taking a seat on the floor and letting the other boys take the sofa next to Zac.</p><p>“Are you all on the team?” Tom asked.</p><p>Zac shook his head, “just Jamie here, and he’s pretty damn great.”</p><p>Sean smiled. “Well, if you’re anything like you’re mother, we could be in trouble.”</p><p>James smiled widely at that, knowing it crinkled his eyes and pushed his glasses up his face. He loved when people complimented his mum, it was a triumphant feeling. His mum was often brushed under the rug compared to his dad and his accomplishments, and whilst they were great, his mum’s run as Chaser for the Hollyhead Harpies was just as legendary. She became known as one of their greatest players and still is even years after her retirement.</p><p>“I’m not sure I live up to her status, but I do try,” James said modestly. Albus says he needs to reel in his cockiness from time to time and now is as good a time as any to start practicing that. Besides, he really didn’t think he’d ever live up to his mum. He’s played countless games with and against her at this stage in his life and has never been able to match her standard. He hopes one day he will.</p><p>“Enough about Quidditch, the prank, Jamie,” Freddie reminded from his space next to James, where he’d been forced to sit.</p><p>“We have plenty of time to think-” James began, but was cut off with confusion when three paper aeroplanes entered the common room and stopped in front of him. The other two stopped in front of Yann and Rose. James plucked it from the air and quickly unfolded it to see what had been written.</p><p>
  <em>James Potter,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Hogwarts Quidditch meeting tomorrow at 1, my office. See you then.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Madame Hooch</em>
</p><p>James tucked the note away in his robes and tuned back into the conversation that had long moved on without him. He found that Sean and Tom fit quite nicely into their little group of friends, banter flowing easily through the conversation. By the time they all decided to turn in and call it a night, they had been up for hours and forgetting that classes started the next morning. The common room had long been cleared out and it was just the five of them laughing and joking.</p><p>It was Zac who first decided to announce that it was <em>very</em> late, causing the rest of them to realise they’d been yawning for hours. They said a quick good night to Sean and Tom, agreeing to meet them in the common room the next morning and walk with them to the Great Hall for breakfast.</p><p>When they were all finally tucked into bed, James let himself reminisce on the day. It had been a good start to the new year – great even. He was sure the rest of his seventh year had a lot in store for him, and he was determined to make this year the best one of his life. He tried not to think about graduation and the world beyond it, for now he would live in the moment with his best friends, making sure to never take life too seriously. Because where was the fun in that?</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The next chapter will be up on thursday :)<br/>Nicole (@nicolejustdraws on twitter) has, once again, drawn some wonderful drawings for this fic, a big thank you to her!<br/>If you liked, please leave a kudo and if you're feeling extra generous then all comments, no matter how small, are always appreciated :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. on a history book page</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That morning seemed to go the slowest James had ever had a morning at Hogwarts go. He was eager to get to the Quidditch meeting set up by Madame Hooch, meaning his morning of classes were filled with only half paying attention and a lot of leg jiggling which ended up with Zac slapping his leg halfway through Potions.</p><p>They had sat with Sean and Tom for breakfast and a couple other members of the team, and James invited Rose and Yann to sit with them so they could meet them too. Mostly they spoke about how different their schools were, what it was like living in New Zealand compared to Scotland, and how much everyone missed their families – it was always worse just after Christmas. James noticed the other students from the other schools mingling well with the houses they’d been sorted with.</p><p>However, it was finally lunch time which meant it was finally time for the meeting. As James rounded the corner he paused, seeing Scorpius and Albus already waiting outside Madame Hooch’s office and in a deep conversation. They were standing close, Albus’ hands resting protectively on Scorpius’ waist whilst the other boy looked rather sad and defeated. James didn’t want to intrude, but he heard the end of Albus’ words and simply couldn’t <em>not </em>listen.</p><p>“If you want to quit, then quit,” Albus said, his voice low.</p><p>“I should be happy I made the team, and I am, but I’m also scared,” Scorpius admitted. Albus was rubbing circles over Scorpius’ hip and it was such an intimate moment that James had to look away. “I’m the only one not on a team or ever played a real game, and let’s not forget <em>Yann Fredericks</em> is Keeper, he’s been trying to make our lives living hell since first year.”</p><p>“I know, but hey, we’ve been through worse things than Yann Fredericks, right?” When Scorpius never reacted, Albus pressed on. “Right?” Scorpius looked at him and nodded softly before wiping away tears that had formed with the sleeve of his cardigan. James backed up a little bit, hoping neither of them saw him before going back around the corner and smiled widely.</p><p>“Hey,” James greeted and Scorpius wiped his tears even faster. James pretended not to notice knowing the other boy would get too embarrassed – just like Al, he wasn’t one for talking about his feelings.</p><p>“Hey, James,” Albus greeted then turned back to Scorpius. “I’ll see you in Creatures class, are you sure you don’t want me to grab you any lunch?”</p><p>“I’m sure, see you in a bit,” Scorpius said.</p><p>Albus rose on his tiptoes to give Scorpius a gentle kiss, again making James look away. They whispered something quiet to each other he didn’t catch before Albus was walking off, giving a brief wave to James. James waved back and turned to Scorpius, smiling at him slightly.</p><p>“Congrats, dude!” James said, lightly punching him in the shoulder. Scorpius smiled, but not his usual wide and I’m-truly-happy-about-this smile. It seemed more forced. James guessed he was having a bad day, Albus said he gets those sometimes and judging by the bags around his eyes, it wasn’t a great night either.</p><p>“Thanks, you too. Though, there was really no doubt you’d make it because you’re James Potter,” he gestured vaguely at James, “and you know pretty much great at everything and-”</p><p>“Not quite everything,” James interrupted, feeling that familiar pang of longing in his heart.</p><p>“Name one thing,” Scorpius challenged.</p><p>“Love. I mean, you’re definitely better at that than me.”</p><p>“What’d you mean?”</p><p>“I mean you’ve pretty much got Albus wrapped around your little finger.” Scorpius smiled slightly – a more genuine one this time – and looked at his finger as though James was being literal. Then he slightly shrugged, that smile still on his face.</p><p>That disappeared when William and Mia Hudson rounded the corner, Rose just shortly behind them. James planted his usual smile on his face, whereas Scorpius pressed himself against the wall as though it would swallow him whole. There was a boring exchange of names as everyone who had been picked for the Hogwarts Quidditch team eventually showed up. James was of course familiar with Yann, who had been on his team for two years, and Rose, his cousin and team member for three years. He’d only come into contact with the Hudson twins on the pitch of their respective houses, and Kiara once dated Zac for a while in their sixth year, so James knew her as well. Overall, he knew they had a team of great talent and they were destined to go far.</p><p>Madame Hooch showed up ten minutes late and whisked them away into her office rather quickly. It was a rather large office with a wide open space now occupied with a couple of chairs and tables. Hooch clearly intended for them to be here for a while. She told them all to sit down, summoning a chalk board as she did. The team did as they were told, spreading themselves across the two tables. Madame Hooch quickly waited for them to settle down before addressing them all.</p><p>“Congratulations to you all for making the team. As you know, the majority of you have played on your house teams before but I assure you this will be very different. You will be playing against the best of these schools, just as they are playing against the best of Hogwarts. Now, are you all familiar with each other or do we need to do introductions? Fun facts? The most important thing in Quidditch is a rapport within your team, as you all know.”</p><p>Madame Hooch looked between all of them expectantly and James knew exactly what he had to do. He rolled his eyes and stood up, the scraping of the chair ringing loudly in his ears.</p><p>“I’m James Potter, I’m in my seventh year and a Gryffindor. When I was little, my little sister had a fish called Jam, yes named after me but she couldn’t say my name, and I accidentally killed it by forgetting to feed it whilst she was at our Aunt Luna’s for the week. I blamed Albus and he’s never forgiven me for it.” He heard Scorpius let out a little huff of laughter and James felt proud of himself, he knew Scorpius was currently halfway into a panic attack and he was glad he could help calm him down.</p><p>One by one they went around the table. Mia and William – or ‘Will’ as he preferred – stood together and spoke of a Christmas they spent in Australia one time and how their dad burned the turkey. Yann spoke of his girlfriend, Polly, and how she was the best thing that ever happened to him, and his best friend Karl who was his biggest supporter. Rose told everyone her aspirations for the future and Kiara spoke of how she moved houses over the summer into a muggle town after her parents split. Scorpius went last and he looked like he’d rather be eaten by Voldemorts’ snake than speak in front of anyone.</p><p>He never stood up, instead leaned forward on his seat and played with the ends of the sleeves of his cardigan. “I’m Scorpius, 5th year, Slytherin and I… like Astronomy.” He kept his gaze down and the room was awkwardly quiet. Until Yann spoke up.</p><p>“Astronomy? You’re named after a constellation and go with something as cliché as ‘I like Astronomy’?”</p><p>“Thank you, everyone,” Madame Hooch quickly inputted, clearly feeling the tension in the room rising. “Now, I want you all to appoint a captain. I didn’t want to pick one because I wanted it to be a mutual decision.”</p><p>Rose raised her hand, “so, we do a vote?”</p><p>“It needs to be anonymous,” Will said. “Just so there’s no tension.”</p><p>“Then how?” Rose asked.</p><p>It seemed Yann wasn’t yet done with tormenting Scorpius, and James was close to exploding. “Yo, Malfoy, you never shut up, where’s your voice now? Got any brilliant ideas? Other than destroying the world and bringing Voldemort back?”</p><p>Scorpius winced slightly, but ignored Yann and looked to Madame Hooch. “We could do a ballet poll, like the muggles do for elections.”</p><p>“Brilliant,” Madame Hooch said, conjuring up a box and pieces of parchment. “Rules are you can only vote once and you cannot vote for yourself. Okay, up, one by one.”</p><p>Kiara went first, jotting a name on a piece of parchment and putting it into the box. One by one, each member of the team wrote down a name and put it in. James knew who he was going to vote for. He wanted Captain himself, but there was only one other person capable of leading other than him and even though he knew that person wouldn’t win; it might be a nice vote of confidence.</p><p>When they’d all completed the task and sat back down, Madame Hooch took the lid off the box and pulled out a vote one by one. “One vote for James, one for Rose. Another for James, another for James, one for Scorpius,” at that Scorpius reeled back, pulling the most confused face James had ever seen the other boy pull. He looked at James, but he only shrugged. “Another for Rose and one more for James, which means James is your new team Captain.”</p><p>A smile broke out of his face as there was a mini round of applause. He didn’t really expect to win, the only thing he had going for him was that he was the only Captain of another team in the room, but he’ll take it.</p><p>“Okay, and final thing from me, I have the schedule for the Pitch and when you guys are allowed to practice on there, come to me for any extra time you may want or need. And here is the list for the first three games, you guys are playing first against Ohau.”</p><p>Madame Hooch put both schedules on the tables and James leapt forward to grab one, ignoring the Pitch schedule and going straight for the games. His eyes scanned over them, barely taking any information in until he let his heart relax and read through it properly.</p><p>
  <em>Saturday 15<sup>th</sup> January – Hogwarts vs. Ohau Institute of Magic</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Saturday 29<sup>th</sup> January – Castelobruxo vs. Ohau Institute of Magic</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Saturday 12<sup>th</sup> February – Ilvermorny vs. Castelobruxo</em>
</p><p>Excited chatter broke out between everyone, James included. They had all already begun taking notes, exchanging various Quidditch tactics they could use on the pitch and were prepared to practice at their first session – that evening. They spent the rest of the break talking about their best course of action. Quidditch was so much more than flying and scoring points, there was a lot of tactics to the game. There was a reason James was so good – he learnt from the best, his mum.</p><p>When the bell rang for the end of lunch, Scorpius was the first out of the classroom with only a brief goodbye. James wanted to catch up to him and check he was okay, but figured he’d talk to Albus if needed. Instead, James gathered his own things and made his way to the common room. He had a free period and figured he could get started on plans for their first game.</p><p>He didn’t get very far, however, as he was interrupted by a rather familiar face. Lexi, his ex-girlfriend as of just before Christmas, approached him shyly, hands fiddling with each other as she smiled softly. And even though he was over her – <em>he was</em> – his heart still did that funny little somersault it had a habit of doing.</p><p>Maybe he should get checked for a heart murmur.</p><p>“Hey,” Lexi said. Despite the snow falling outside, she was wearing high-knee socks with her skirt rather than tights as she so often did. James used to tell her that her blood was as warm as her heart, which is why she never felt the cold. She smiled so beautifully at that.</p><p>“Hey,” he spoke back, trying to play cool.</p><p>“May I?” She gestured to the seat next to her. James nodded and shuffled over slightly, allowing her to squeeze onto the sofa next to him. “You never responded to my letter, I just wanted to make sure you were okay?”</p><p>So, he and Lexi never dated for <em>that</em> long, as Albus so helpfully pointed out over the holidays, but it didn’t mean the break-up didn’t sting like a thousand scorpions. As did every break-up he’d ever had. James had a sort of reputation that he was a heart-breaker, but in truth he was the one getting his heartbroken. He was simply too much for most people because he fell in love with just a single smile or the touch of a hand. And he liked to do big grand gestures to show this love that most of his previous partners had called ‘cringey’ or ‘overdramatic’ and dumped James right after.</p><p>And he never seemed to learn.</p><p>From one mistake to the next, it seemed he would never find true love.</p><p>“I’m good,” James lied. “It was for the best,” another lie.</p><p>Lexi seemed to believe them. “I’m glad you feel that way, I didn’t want things to be awkward between us.”</p><p>“Of course not,” James assured.</p><p>“Congratulations on making the team, I know how important that was to you,” Lexi complimented, nudging his shoulder lightly.</p><p>“Got Captain too,” he told her, smiling properly this time. That was still pretty surreal.</p><p>“No way!”</p><p>“Captain, aye?” Another voice sounded behind James. He immediately smiled and turned to see Sean standing there with – if James admitted it – a rather proud smile on his face. “I guess that means I’m officially friends with the rivals Captain, the team might chop my head off for that treason.”</p><p>James smiled and rolled his eyes. “We best cut this friendship off then, wouldn’t want that pretty head of yours decapitated,” James said, his brain only catching up with his mouth moments after the words were spoken. “I mean, I- er,” he stuttered, but it was too late, there was no taking it back.</p><p><em>What is wrong with you, James?</em> He scolded himself, <em>you are never like this.</em></p><p>But apparently, he was.</p><p>Sean didn’t seem bothered by his comment, however, and let out a little adorable chuckle, placing his hand over his heart. “You’re too good to me, James.”</p><p>James was so caught up in watching Sean smile and laugh that he completely missed the looks Lexi was sending him and was quite glad for it too. He didn’t want to see the surprise or maybe even confusion on her face. Though it was no secret James like both boys and girls, he had never actually dated a boy before. Simply because the selection at Hogwarts was rather minimal – his brother was one of the lucky ones. But truth was, many people were scared to come out with their true sexuality and James could not blame them, it was a very scary concept.</p><p>“Anyway, we have Quidditch practice so I gotta dash, I’ll see you around,” Sean said, breaking James from his trance. He barely managed to mutter a goodbye before Sean was out of the common room and James felt like he could breathe again. He heard Lexi make some kind of comment, but James decided to retreat to his room to continue working on the Quidditch plans.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>The snow had decided to join them that evening for Quidditch practice, much to James’ dismay. It had stopped earlier in the day, but had started again by the time they got out to train. Training in the snow and cold was one of the most uncomfortable things in the world as his glasses got fogged up and wet, his hair stuck uncomfortably to his forehead and Quidditch robes really aren’t the most practical things when they’re stuck to your body.</p><p>They’d initially taken shelter under one of the stands to see if it would knock off and spent the time exchanging various tactics, but eventually they all agreed to take to the skies no matter the weather. James made sure they’d all wrapped up well and were all wearing gloves, scarves and hats, it was not worth any of the team getting sick before their first game.</p><p>They navigated the pitch with flushed cheeks and blue lips, passing the quaffle from Chaser to Chaser, the Keeper hard at work to stop them from scoring and the Beaters tossing the Bludger back and forth between them. Meanwhile, Scorpius was high above them looking out for the snitch. When he caught that, James would call an end to practice. Unless the snitch decided to stay hidden for a ridiculous amount of time.</p><p>The winter meant that the skies had long darkened for the day and the only thing lighting up the pitch was the surrounding bright lights. James could feel his body aching as he caught the quaffle from Rose and tossed it back to Kiara. Just as she caught it, Scorpius zoomed past her at a ridiculous speed, very narrowly missing head-butting the quaffle himself. Kiara wobbled slightly on her broom before looking after him, but Scorpius had disappeared in the fog.</p><p>Kiara looked at James with her eyebrows raised. “He’s fast,” she complimented, the ghost of a smile on her lips. James couldn’t help the proud smile form on his lips and nodded in response. Kiara then took off towards the goal posts, scoring past Yann and letting out a loud cheer. Rose high-fived her on her way back whilst Yann retrieved the quaffle and threw it to James.</p><p>But James missed it completely as his attention was elsewhere. He was frantically searching around him, looking for where Scorpius disappeared to but not being able to find him anywhere. The snow had started falling faster, a snowstorm on the horizon and anything could go wrong when training in these conditions.</p><p>“Where’s your head, James?” Rose shouted across the pitch after she’d received the quaffle he blatantly ignored.</p><p>Before James could answer, he heard Will express his exact thoughts from across the pitch shout, “hey, where’d Malfoy go?”</p><p>It seemed everyone had started to notice the disappearance of the blond-haired boy, as Will wrestled the bludger to the floor and back in its box and Rose dropped the quaffle to the floor before they all came in for a huddle. Even Yann seemed a little worried. They all started talking over each other, talking about where they’d last seen him and looking around but the pitch was so clouded in fog it was difficult to see anything.</p><p>James took off his glasses and attempted to wipe them clean before pushing them back onto his face. He tried looking to the floor, but he could only see directly below them where the snow had landed and built up thick.</p><p>Albus was going to kill him. One practice. It only took one practice for something to happen to Scorpius even though James had promised to keep an eye on him and to look after him. Even though James wanted to make sure he was okay because Scorpius was just as much a little brother to him now as Albus was.</p><p>“We should split up and search,” Rose said, bringing James back to the conversation.</p><p>“Search for what?” A voice sounded behind him, and it took all of his strength not to turn around tackle Scorpius in a bone-crushing hug.</p><p>“There you are,” James said, unable to hide the relief from his tone. Scorpius threaded his eyebrows together, staring wide-eyed at all of them like he was shocked they were ready to start a search party for him. Then he spotted the bruise forming under his chin and despite Scorpius’ dislike for other people touching him, James surged forward and lifted his chin up for a better look. “What happened?”</p><p>Scorpius struggled out of his grip and backed away on his broom slightly, and James regretted his brash actions. Instead of answering, Scorpius held up the snitch. “Is practice over now? I’m freezing,” he said with the ghost of a smile.</p><p>“Thank Dumbledore,” Mia laughed, causing all of them to chuckle slightly. James nodded and the team landed in the heavy load of snow beneath them, trudging through it with heavy feet. James collected the quaffle and placed it away in the box, as well as the snitch. They all retreated to the changing rooms and James immediately cast a heating charm to help warm everyone up.</p><p>James approached Scorpius just as he was about to leave – noticing how he decided not to shower here and would probably back at his dorm and vowed to find a way for the other boy to feel more comfortable around the team.</p><p>“Hey,” he said. Scorpius looked up and smiled at him slightly, but didn’t offer any words in response. “You did great today,” he complimented.</p><p>“Thanks.”</p><p>“Look, I know this whole thing is new territory for you and you’re probably really anxious about it, but you can talk to me about it, you know? I want to help you feel like a part of this team.”</p><p>Scorpius stopped packing his bag and looked at James properly this time, his lips contorted into a pout and wide grey eyes as stormy as the snowfall outside. James didn’t know much about the effects of the Cruciatus Curse, but he believed it left behind something more than pain and that was evident in the eyes of both Scorpius and his father. They had this haunted look to them, like they had seen every single last horror of the world and it followed them around every second of every day.</p><p>“Thanks James,” he finally spoke. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, just need some time to get used to it.” It sounded like a lie Albus would tell and James found himself wondering if they spend <em>too much</em> time together. Before he could respond, Scorpius threw his bag over his shoulder and lightly patted James’ shoulder with a taut smile. Then he was gone.</p><p>James showered and got cleaned up from practice, thinking about everything that would be happening and changing over the next few weeks. With N.E.W.Ts in full force, the Quidditch match on the horizon and a team still unused to playing together on the pitch, James was in for an intense couple of weeks.</p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope y'all are enjoying it so far!<br/>Thanks again to @nicolejustdraws for another wonderful drawing! <br/>I'll see you on monday for the next chapter, please don't be shy and feel free to leave a comment, no matter how small :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. start of an age</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The weekend should have come with a little bit of relief that the first week of classes were over and James and his friends were finally settling back into Hogwarts life. That was the complete opposite however. They were already drowning in assignments and the first Quidditch match was one week away, yet his team still struggled to work as a single organism. Luckily the snow had stopped, which meant Quidditch practices weren’t as brutal as the first one.</p><p>They’d had another three since the first one on Monday and even though they’d tried to manoeuvre like a team that had been working together for months, truth was they kept getting in each other’s way. It was pride thing, James knew that. Everyone wanted to showcase their talent and was eager to show why they belonged on the team, meaning they weren’t afraid to step on each others toes. Which was problematic, because as Hooch said, they need to build a rapport if they wanted to win.</p><p>But, they were a <em>decent </em>team, despite the room for improvement, and he only hoped they could win Ohau and then would have a lot more time to build this trust and rapport they needed. James was currently working on the best ways to do that, ignoring his Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts assignments due that Monday, when Zac approached him in the common room.</p><p>“We’re going to Hogsmeade,” he announced.</p><p>James looked up from his parchment, having to push his glasses back up his nose. He gaped slightly at Zac, not expecting him to say that. James looked anxiously at his watch and back at him. “When?”</p><p>“In about an hour, after everyone’s had breakfast,” he pulled up a chair next to James. “You should come; we’ve barely seen you, especially Nelly.”</p><p>“I have Quidditch practice in twenty minutes.” Zac raised his eyebrows at him. “If I have time, I’ll meet you guys after,” he promised.</p><p>“Alright, mate.”</p><p>James almost wished he hadn’t said anything, knowing that he had to show his face in Hogsmeade at some point that day otherwise he’d never live it down. Maybe he could do his Potions assignment in The Three Broomsticks. James briefly considered it before deciding it was a terrible idea. He did, however, agree to go with Zac to breakfast. It had to be a fairly quick breakfast, but it was better than nothing.</p><p>They sat with Nelly at the Hufflepuff table as she was already waiting for them and James grabbed two croissants and a glass of orange juice (pumpkin juice was, by far, the wizarding worlds worst creation, in his opinion).</p><p>“Are you taking anyone tonight, James?” Nelly asked. James stared at her blankly for a few seconds before he remembered what was happening tonight.</p><p>The four school Quidditch teams were having a get together, a way for them all to meet and mingle before they start competing against each other. The teachers thought it was important for everyone to remember that this was only a friendly competition, and that unity was the main aim of the tournament – to bring people together and to make lasting friendships. James already had made a couple of friends from the New Zealand team, and he was quite excited to meet more.</p><p>“I’m not sure,” he answered because truthfully he hadn’t thought to ask anyone. He was going to fly solo, most of his team were; except for Yann who was bringing Polly and, of course, Scorpius who was bringing his left arm, Albus. “I didn’t think to ask, unless one of you wants to come.” He figured an open invitation seemed best.</p><p>Nelly smiled. “I would love to, I’ve got my eye on that handsome one from Castelobruxo,” she winked at them. James knew the one; it was the one who made him go ridiculously flustered at the welcoming feast. He wouldn’t mind getting to know him either.</p><p>“Great, I’ll pick you at 7,” James winked. He finished his croissants and downed the rest of his juice, standing and brushing the crumbs from his uniform. “Gotta dash, see you down at Hogsmeade.” With that, he grabbed his broom from under the table and all but flew from the Great Hall. He raced down to the pitch, eager to get on his broom and start another training session.</p><p>The team were already there and in the air by the time James arrived, all but Scorpius who was sat leaning up against the Quidditch stands reading a book.</p><p>“Alright, team, huddle up!” James shouted, catching everyone’s attention. The frost crunched beneath his boots as he worked his way across the pitch. Everyone touched down and Scorpius packed away his book and took his glasses off to join them. “Right, I sort of want to switch some things up today and practice some things that maybe we wouldn’t normally attempt. I mean, we’re Hogwarts’ best right? So, we should show that. The game’s next week and we need to beat Ohau, so lets make sure it happens!”</p><p>There was a small cheer from a couple of the members of the team and James smiled at them.</p><p>“Will, Mia, ever heard of the Bludger Backbeat?”</p><p>“Of course,” they said in unison.</p><p>“Well, I want you to perfect it. It’s the perfect way to throw off Ohau and the other teams,” James said. They both nodded, looking at each other with mischievous looks. “Great, Rose and Kiara, I want us to practice the Body Blow. It’s important for all of us to be able to perform it efficiently, but also know how to keep hold of the quaffle if it happens to us. We’ll be racing towards Yann, and then whoever is in possession of the quaffle will attempt the Finbourgh Flick.”</p><p>“Isn’t that dangerous?” Kiara asked.</p><p>“Not if done correctly and efficiently, and whoever is doing it will have the other two as spotters in case.” Kiara nodded, albeit a little nervously, but if you couldn’t trust your team members then it’s useless. “Yann, I want you practicing the Starfish and Stick.”</p><p>“Got it, Captain,” he saluted.</p><p>“And Scorpius, heard of the Wronski Feint?” The younger boy nodded slowly, biting down on his bottom lip. “Well I want you practicing diving, you’re fast on a broom, but you struggle when having to stop suddenly, especially if the snitch really is heading for the ground. If you crash, the rest of us don’t have a Seeker, you’re our most important member.” He patted Scorpius on the shoulder. “Right, let’s go!”</p><p>The team took to the skies. James decided to go first as the one in possession with the quaffle to show Rose and Kiara how it’s done. They were good at trying to block him and get the quaffle, but James had been doing this tactic since he was eleven. They raced towards Yann, who shuffled on his broom slightly as they approached. As they got closer, James performed the Finbourgh Flick, letting the quaffle roll down his broomstick before grabbing the other end and batting it towards the lower right goal post. He swiftly brought his broom back around and landed on it gracefully, watching as Yann’s Starfish and Stick tactic failed and the quaffle flew through the hoop.</p><p>The three Chasers flicked between who held possession and would perform the trick. As James knew how to do it, he mostly spent the time coaching Rose and Kiara, helping them perfect it. He tried his best to keep an eye on Will, Mia and Scorpius. Occasionally he’d shout advice from across the pitch and would get an affirmative in response. James cringed when one of Mia’s backbeats’ went awfully wrong and very near knocked Scorpius from his broom, only narrowly missing him from his speed.</p><p>As for Scorpius, James saw him roll on the floor more often than not. He would dive towards the floor, unable to pull up all the way to a flat angle in time and have to tuck and roll on the floor. James called practice to an end once he saw everyone growing tired, himself included. He called them in for another huddle and gave them a quick pep talk, telling them how great they’d all done and that he’d see them later that evening for the meet-up.</p><p>“Am I good to stay out here?” Scorpius asked, grabbing James just before he could walk off.</p><p>“Yeah, I think Ilvermorny are out here in a couple of hours but the pitch is free till then. Don’t work too hard, Scorpius, you need the rest. You look tired.”</p><p>“Just going to practice a little longer,” he assured, half-smiling. James nodded, patting him on the shoulder before heading to the changing rooms.</p><p>James changed quickly before briefly popping back to his dorm to drop off his broomstick and grab some money for a butterbeer. He decided a gentle jog down to Hogsmeade would not only help his training but also get him there faster, so he fastened his trainers tightly threw on a hoody and scarf before starting his journey down there.</p><p>He stopped quickly in Honeydukes to pick up a chocolate frog that he knew he’d be craving tomorrow when he has to settle down and smash out these assignments. Then he went into The Three Broomstick, spotting Freddie, Nelly and Zac sitting in a booth. He ordered four butterbeers for them before levitating them over the table and loudly announcing himself, getting a rowdy cheer in response.</p><p>James scooted in next to Fred who immediately threw his arm around his shoulder. “Ew, why are you all sweaty?” He asked, pushing him off and wiping his hand.</p><p>“I jogged here,” he shrugged.</p><p>“I don’t know what you find so appealing about exercise, Jamie. Doesn’t do much for you anyway,” Fred joked, squeezing his belly as though it was chubbier than it actually was.</p><p>“Piss off,” James scolded, pulling the butterbeer he’d bought for Fred away from him and taking a sip, despite having his own.</p><p>“Oi, give it back.”</p><p>“Buy your own next time, Frederick.”</p><p>“That’s not even my name,” he protested, stealing James’ butterbeer and taking a sip. James narrowed his eyes at him before nudging him harshly, causing the butterbeer to spill over him. James barked out a laugh along with Zac and Nelly, but Fred sent him a pair of daggers that had to power to bury him six feet under.</p><p>“No murder at the dinner table please, children,” Zac scolded. James resisted the urge to point out none of them were eating and therefore it was not <em>strictly</em> a dinner table. But he let that one slide.</p><p>Out the corner of his eye, James saw his little sister enter the pub with some boy. James gaped, staring as he led her over to a table and she let out a childish giggle as he said something. James immediately stood and made his way over, just missing the boy as he went to get them a drink. He heard Freddie and Zac call him back, but there was no way he was letting Lily get away with <em>dating</em> someone without telling him.</p><p>“Lily,” he greeted with a smile. His sister jumped a mile, placing a hand over her heart.</p><p>“James, you scared me!” She scolded, hitting his stomach. “What are you doing here? You told me you wouldn’t be coming to Hogsmeade because of training.”</p><p><em>Oh, so she thinks she could have kept this from me,</em> he thought.</p><p>“Last minute decision,” he said. “Why are you here?”</p><p>“And Albus said he wouldn’t be here either,” she added as an afterthought, but James suspected she wasn’t meant to say it out loud.</p><p>James smirked. “Is that because you didn’t want us knowing you’re on a date?”</p><p>“A date?” She choked. “I’m not on a date.” Her mouth was saying one thing, but her bright red cheeks were more than just an effect of the chill outside.</p><p>“You’re too young to be dating,” James scolded, doing his older brother duty.</p><p>“Good job I’m not on a date then!” She folded her arms. “Go away, James!”</p><p>“Lily.”</p><p>“Seriously, get lost. You’re not my keeper!”</p><p>“No, but I am your brother.”</p><p>“Go away.”</p><p>“Lil-”</p><p>“Go.”</p><p>“Lily.”</p><p>“Wow, I did not expect Albus to be the more understanding one out the two of you,” she shouted before standing up and barging past him. She grabbed the boy who she’d entered with and sent James one more look of contempt and stormed out of The Three Broomsticks. James didn’t know what she meant about Albus, but there was no way he was more understanding than James. James loved Albus, but he could be awfully difficult to talk to sometimes.</p><p>James sulked back to the table, trying not to think about how annoyed Lily was with him and quietly sipped on his drink and ignored the looks he got from his friends, and stayed out of the banter. When he’d finished his butterbeer, he sulked up to the castle and decided to work on his essay in the common room.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>By the time the small get together came around, James was utterly exhausted. He showered during the time he was supposed to be at dinner knowing there would be a small buffet to feed the separate teams. He desperately wanted a quick nap but instead he spent the extra time on his hair and picking out an outfit. He decided on a light pair of blue jeans cuffed at the ankles, a black t-shirt of a muggle band he saw in the summer and a matching black pair of shoes to match. He did his best to style his hair – it was much easier to tame than his fathers’ was.</p><p>Finally, he grabbed his new Hogwarts Quidditch jersey – the Hogwarts Quidditch team colours were black and gold – that had ‘Potter’ embroidered on the back in gold, as well as his number ‘01’. He put it on as he walked down the stairs to his common room, grabbing Rose, Yann and Polly on the way.</p><p>The party was in an empty classroom in the dungeons that was very rarely used. They stopped by the Hufflepuff common room to pick up Nelly before heading there together, perfectly on time. Nelly was wearing a pretty yellow dress – always taking the opportunity to sport her house colours.</p><p>They were surprisingly one of the last to arrive. He spotted the rest of his team around the room, some already in deep conversations with members of the other teams. Scorpius and Albus were stood in the corner. Scorpius was holding onto Albus’ hands with a distressed look on his face, and James couldn’t see Albus as he had his back to him and was talking lowly. He couldn’t help but notice that Albus was wearing Scorpius’ Quidditch jersey, the same colours as James’, except with ‘Malfoy, 07’ embroidered on the back.</p><p>“James!” A voice shouted, and he saw Sean and Tom shouting from across the room. James grabbed Nelly and began making his way over to them. “There you are,” Sean greeted, a wide smile.</p><p>“Here I am,” James spoke, feeling his hands going sweaty.</p><p>“This is Lucas,” Sean said, introducing him to the handsome one from the Brazilian team. James felt his mouth go dry as they locked eyes, a deep blue on hazel. Lucas smiled widely, holding his hand out for James to shake, and James quickly wiped his hand on his jeans before shaking his hand – being all too aware of how his hands were cold yet somehow sweaty at the same time.</p><p>“I’m Nelly,” his friend introduced herself, quickly shaking his hand after James.</p><p>“It’s lovely to meet you both,” Lucas said, slightly bowing his head. “What do you play?”</p><p>“Chaser, and yourself?”</p><p>“Keeper,” Lucas said. He turned his head to Nelly and raised his eyebrows.</p><p>“Oh, I don’t play, I’m just James’ tag along,” she laughed and Lucas – for some bizarre reason – laughed along with her. James laughed awkwardly too, but when Lucas and Nelly got into a deep conversation without him he decided it best to turn back to Sean and Tom – who had also moved on.</p><p>James didn’t normally feel <em>this</em> awkward in social situations. James loved meeting new people and he loved talking, events like these were usually where he found himself most at ease. He took a step away from everyone for a moment, deciding to hit the buffet table and see if a bit of food could calm his stomach.</p><p>He was deciding on which sandwich he’d prefer when a perky voice appeared at the side of him.</p><p>“James, right? James Potter?” James turned to see a girl standing there, her blonde hair pulled into a high ponytail. Her eyes were a deep green and she wore a bright smile as she stared at him.</p><p>“Right, yeah. And you are?” He asked.</p><p>“Jessica Wright,” she held her hand out. James noticed her thick American accent and remembered her from the top of the Ilvermorny tower during their entrance in the Great Hall. Her hand was warm, sending tingles through James’ body.</p><p>“Nice to meet you, are you on the Ilvermorny team?”</p><p>“Seeker and captain,” she said proudly, her hands on her hips as she shrugged proudly.</p><p>“Chaser and captain,” James responded, equally proud.</p><p>“Nice, are you ready for your first game? Can’t wait to see Hogwarts in action, we’ve heard some pretty great things.”</p><p>“You have?”</p><p>“Yeah, pretty much everyone I talk to tells me how great you are, I knew I’d have to come talk to you first hand. Your team is rather young,” she observed, looking around at the other members of their team. It’s true, they had three members that were only in their fifth-year. She lingered on Albus and Scorpius in the corner before turning back to James with a bright smile.</p><p>“There are a couple of younger ones, but I assure you they completely earned their spot,” James said, feeling suddenly defensive of his team.</p><p>“I don’t doubt it, like I said I’ve heard great things.”</p><p>“I’d love to meet more of your team,” James said.</p><p>“Want to eye up the competition?” She teased, nudging his shoulder.</p><p>James feigned shock. “I would never, this is a friendly competition, remember the main aim is to make friends,” he said, winking at her. Jessica let out a giggle and nodded, grabbing his free hand – the one not holding a plate of food – and led him over to a group of Ilvermorny students. She introduced them one by one, but James hardly remembered any of their names as they delve deep into conversation.</p><p>The evening was a blur of meeting a bunch of new people and conversations he would soon quickly forget about. He managed to make his way around everyone, staying mostly with Jessica and a couple of her friends. Sean joined him too and James spent most the evening laughing so hard his stomach hurt.</p><p>James was with Jessica, Sean and a couple of other Castelobruxo students when Albus tugged on his arm. He turned to face him with a smile and saw him standing there, Scorpius trying to hide behind him and looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. James felt his heart ache for him, Scorpius used to love trying to make new friends.</p><p>“Hey, guys,” James announced, moving over and making room. “This is my little brother, Albus, and our teams Seeker, Scorpius.” There was a mumble of greetings from the group around them and Albus and Scorpius awkwardly waved.</p><p>Jessica brightened up at the mention of Scorpius. “So, you’re my Hogwarts competition, pleased to meet you, I’m Jessica.”</p><p>“Oh, erm, hi,” he greeted, smiling genuinely at her. “Sorry to interrupt,” Scorpius said to the group. James looked down and saw that he was holding Albus’ hand very tightly and knew that his nerves hadn’t quite calmed down yet.</p><p>“No worries,” Adam – a Chaser on the Ilvermorny team - said. “We were just talking about the history of Ilvermorny.”</p><p>Scorpius lit up like a Christmas tree. “Ooh, is it true that Ilvermorny was involved in one of the biggest breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy? That Dorcus Twelvetrees gave away the location of Ilvermorny to a muggle named Bartholomew and he revealed that information to the muggle – sorry, no-maj – community in America and therefore the passing of Rappaport’s law? I remember reading about it in a book for History of Magic and found it absolutely fascinating and…” Scorpius trailed off, noticing the looks he was being given. “And I’m being annoying, sorry,” he murmured, stepping back slightly and looking a little like he was going to throw up.</p><p>The group was quiet for a moment whilst James figured out what to say. Luckily, someone else spoke up. “You knew all that just from a book?” Jessica asked. Scorpius nodded slightly, decidedly looking to the floor rather than at anyone else. “Impressive. I didn’t know that and it’s my school,” she giggled.</p><p>“Thank you,” he muttered.</p><p>“You weren’t being annoying, mate,” someone else assured, but even James didn’t believe the statement.</p><p>“It was nice to meet you all,” Scorpius said, politely, and tugged on Albus’ arm. Albus got the hint and waved goodbye. James sent them a sympathetic look before watching them leave. Scorpius practically ran, clearly desperate to get as far away from the room as possible.</p><p>Before anyone could say anything, James spoke up. “He’s a good kid, and I don’t want to hear a bad word about him. He gets enough of that.” So, maybe it was a little bit of a threat, but James had vowed to make sure both Albus and Scorpius were never victims of bullying as long as he was at the school again.</p><p>They all mumbled an agreement and quickly moved onto a whole new topic. James then decided it was time to turn in, saying his goodbyes and gave Jessica a cheeky kiss on the cheek. He found Nelly, who was still with Lucas and a bunch of others from Castelobruxo that James had briefly met throughout the night. She agreed to leave with him and James dropped her off at the Hufflepuff dorms before heading to bed himself. The day had truly exhausted him, and he couldn’t wait for a lie-in the next morning.</p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading, comments and kudos make my world a little brighter :) </p><p>Next chapter is thursday!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. take a moment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“James? May I speak with you after class?” Professor Reus asked as James packed away his books. He nodded slightly, finishing packing his books away and throwing his bag over his shoulder. Everyone else was shuffling out the room, cheering that their day of classes was finally over but James didn’t share the same enthusiasm. He had a bad feeling about this.</p><p>He picked his glasses up from the table and shoved them on – he had taken them off to rub his eyes properly, not only to nurse his growing headache but to also try and wake himself up. He waited until the last of the class had dispersed before walking to the front of the classroom, holding onto his bag for comfort.</p><p>“James, you’ve always been one of my brightest and most enthusiastic students when it came to Defence Against the Dark Arts,” Professor Reus said as she sat down in her chair. James shuffled awkwardly on his feet, somehow knowing what was going to come next. “You wished to be an Auror, correct?”</p><p>“Not anymore,” James said. Whereas, yes, once upon a time he dreamed to be like his dad, now he didn’t believe that path was for him. Quidditch was his dream, and it was so close he could feel it. Graduation was just around the corner, the first match of the I.S.Q.T. was that weekend, everything was going to fall into place for him; he could feel it.</p><p>“Oh,” Professor Reus said, surprised at the change of heart. “You were so adamant back in your fifth year.”</p><p>James smiled and half-shrugged. “Things change, people change.”</p><p>“Grades change too,” she added and James’ smile dropped. He thought that might have been the case, but hearing the words to confirm it made his heart pound. “I was marking the essay I set during class and it is not up to your standard, James, what happened?”</p><p>“Things have been a… little crazy,” James said, knowing that she wouldn’t take it as an excuse. “I’ll do better, Professor, just with everything that’s going on, the tournament and N.E.W.Ts and my little brother-”</p><p>“Is something wrong with Albus?” Professor Reus asked, slight concern in her voice. As of this year, Professor Reus had become Head of Slytherin house and Albus had grown quite fond of her from what he told James.</p><p>“No,” he said. “Just with everything that happened, I’m trying to be better for him. I’m sorry, Professor, I’ll try harder, I promise.”</p><p>“That’s what I’d like to hear, because I’d hate for you to start slipping now. I’m going to give you another chance,” Professor Reus said, handing his assignment back to him. “You have O potential in this class, Mr. Potter, and you’re far too young, don’t lose your head now.”</p><p>“I won’t,” James promised, planting on his James Sirius Potter Smile – the one that fooled everyone – and began backing out of the classroom. “I won’t let you down, Professor!” He quickly added before dashing out the classroom, only letting himself breathe once he was in the hall. James walked to the other side of the hall and rested his forehead against the cold, harsh stone and muttered, <em>‘fuck’ </em>to himself.</p><p>Instead of going back to the common room for a brief moment of relaxation before dinner and Quidditch practice, James went to the library. He chose a seat right next to the Defence Against the Dark Arts books on a table for two and spread himself out along the table. He put his old essay in the corner and bought out a new fresh piece of parchment and an ink and quill. He looked over the essay title one last time, before writing it at the top of his parchment.</p><p>
  <em>Discuss the reasoning behind the illegalisation of the Imperius Curse and the long-term effects on a victims’ mental health.</em>
</p><p>James flipped to the page on the unforgivable curses and began reading over the extract on the Imperius Curse for what felt like the hundredth time. He read it through twice before standing up and getting another book. The unforgivable curses never used to be taught at Hogwarts, but in light of the war, it was heavily discussed and concluded that it was important for students to learn the reasoning behind the effects and why they’re banned in the first place. That meant that some of the more mellow books were brought out of the Restricted Section and into the main library for the use of N.E.W.T students.</p><p>James picked up two books and settled back down, skimming through them quickly and jotting down a few notes as he went along. When he finished skimming through the books, James looked to his notes and sighed. They were a <em>mess.</em> An absolute mess. He internally groaned and got a new piece of parchment, working on organising his messy notes into something easier to read, grouping them into paragraphs.</p><p>He was halfway through organisation of his notes when a shadow overcame him. James looked up to see Jessica standing there with a bright smile. He instinctively smiled back.</p><p>“Mind if I join you? I didn’t realise the library would be this busy at this time,” she explained, gesturing vaguely. James looked around, rather shocked to see the library so busy too. Usually after classes people liked to return to their dorms to relax before dinner, tackling their assignments on a full stomach.</p><p>“Of course not,” James said, ignoring the jumping of his heart to quickly clear space on the other side of the desk that he’d taken over.</p><p>“Thank you.” Her voice was like honey, sickeningly sweet and addicting. “What’re you working on?”</p><p>James sighed briefly as he looked back at his notes. He’d barely gotten anywhere. He <em>should </em>be writing it by now, but he had messed up his notes so much that he could barely read them, let alone comprehend them into a decent sentence.</p><p>“Defence essay,” he answered, catching her eye for a brief moment.</p><p>She glanced at his essay question written at the top of his old essay. “The same one you were talking about on Saturday?”</p><p>“That’s the one,” he looked at her, rolling his eyes fondly which caused her to let out an angelic laugh. She covered her mouth with her hand, looking around anxiously but James smiled at her and she seemed to relax. He leaned forward in his chair. “What brings you to the library?”</p><p>“Research,” she said, brushing off the question as she pulled a book out that James didn’t catch the title of. She turned to a page but didn’t seem to be reading, because two seconds later she looked back up at him. “Are you staring at me?” She asked with a hint of a flirty tone.</p><p>James half-heartedly shrugged with a smirk. “I like looking at pretty people.” The smile that graced her features lit up the room, bringing all the anguish in the world to a remarkable stop. The sun shone for that smile, yellow hues reflecting off the icy surface of lakes and projecting the world into a sweet serenity where the only thing that mattered was squirrels hiding their nuts and the smile on a beautiful girls lips.</p><p>And James knew he should be doing his assignment, he knew there were more important things to do, but there was Jessica with her beautiful smile and light emerald eyes and everything else seemed miniscule in comparison. She laughed at his jokes and played with the inside of his wrist with nimble fingers, tracing along the veins and a small birthmark he had. Being with her felt so incredibly easy.</p><p>Albus told him that when he met the person that would mean the world, he would know. He would just know without any questioning. And being with Jessica felt like that. Because even though he was surrounded by people, it felt like they were the only two people in the library; in the school; in the entire world.</p><p>Maybe it was a little fast – James barely knew her. But, that was how his heart worked. It fell in love quickly and easily. The faintest touch, the fondest look, the simplest of words and he had fallen, like an angel from heaven or a star from the sky. There was no stopping it from falling in love, James just had to ride it out and hope this time they didn’t break it into a thousand pieces. He wasn’t sure how much more the poor thing could take.</p><p>“So you and your friends like pulling pranks?” Jessica laughed as James finished retelling a story of a prank he and Fred attempted to pull in their first year but were caught before they had the chance.</p><p>“It’s usually Freddie’s ideas, that’s my cousin, and the rest of us sort of go along with it,” James explained.</p><p>“I’d like to meet them, they seem fun.”</p><p>“I’d like that as well, you should join us for dinner,” James said, fiddling with the papers in front of him. It must be time for dinner by now, he was starving.</p><p>“I will tomorrow,” she confirmed.</p><p>“Why not tonight?”</p><p>Jessica furrowed her brows, looking unfairly cute. “Dinner’s over,” she said. “It’s nearing eight now, which is when curfew is for the younger years, right?”</p><p>A wave of panic washed over James. He looked at his watch – gifted to him by his Grandfather on his seventeenth birthday – and saw that it was, in fact, drifting closer to 8 p.m. He was supposed to be at Quidditch practice nearly an hour ago.</p><p>“Fuck,” James muttered, quickly collecting his things and messily shoving them into his bag, knowing that he was crumpling his notes beyond repair. “I’ve gotta go, I’m late, see you!” He shouted as he ran out of the library and up to the Gryffindor common room. He’d began taking his robes and tie off on the run there, and when he entered he completely ignored Fred and Zac calling after him, confused as to where he’s been since class.</p><p>He quickly changed – quicker than he’d ever changed before – and grabbed his broom from under his bed and dashing back out of the common room. He’d never ran so fast in his life, knocking over a poor first year in his haste to get to the Quidditch pitch.</p><p>But when he arrived, his team were touching down and putting away the equipment.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I’m here!” James announced, picking up the pace to meet them in the centre of the pitch. Mia touched down on her broom next to Rose and folded her arms.</p><p>“Where have you been, James?” Rose asked, her voice full of fury.</p><p>“Yeah dude, you’re our captain,” Will inputted after wrestling the bludger into the box.</p><p>“I got distracted, but I’m here now,” he assured. “We can have a quick practice, right? Another half an hour, normally we wouldn’t be done yet anyway.”</p><p>“Everyone’s exhausted,” Rose said. “We’ve been training hard for the past hour as our captain decided to abandon us. What was more important, James?”</p><p>“I had an assignment,” he half-lied. If he told them he’d been distracted by a pretty girl on an opposing team, he’d never live it down.</p><p>“Look,” Kiara said. “We picked you to be our captain because we trusted you, and you let us down barely a week after we’ve been put together.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, I’ll do better!” He looked between the group before furrowing his brows, looking quickly to the sky and not finding who he was looking for. “Where’s Scorpius?”</p><p>Rose unfolded her arms. “He came here with a head full of cold, I told him to go rest.”</p><p>“Scorpius is sick?”</p><p>“Yes, and as our captain decided to ditch, I figured it would be no harm if he did.”</p><p>“Scorpius is the one who needs to train the most,” James said, feeling an unnecessary amount of anger.</p><p>“And he has been,” Mia said. “He’s the one who been staying longer out of all of us, and he can’t help being sick. It’s better for him to rest now than being unable to play on Saturday.”</p><p>“Yes. Saturday, James,” Rose said, her voice rising in anger again. “Remember that day? The day of our <em>first </em>match against Ohau.”</p><p>“I remember, Rosie,” he snapped. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I’ll practice now and I’d appreciate it if you stayed but I understand if you don’t want to. I’m also going to add in an extra practice this week.”</p><p>“Extra?” Will said.</p><p>“Well, technically no. We won’t be training Saturday morning because of the game so I’m moving the Saturday practice to Thursday morning before classes.” There was a collective groan from the group. “I don’t wanna hear it! We need the practice.”</p><p>“So, we’re training Wednesday evening, Thursday morning and Friday evening?” Kiara asked.</p><p>“Yes. If Hooch approves the move,” James affirmed.</p><p>“Fine.” Rose said, unfolding her arms and picking her broom off the floor. She never said goodbye to James, instead barging past him and purposely nudging his shoulder. The rest of the team followed suit, sending him looks of fury. James watched his team walk away from him before kicking his foot angrily against the frozen ground and taking to the skies on his broom.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>By Wednesday, James’ bad mood only seemed to be growing. He’d finished his essay after pulling an all-nighter after his lonesome practice on Monday and handed it in to Professor Reus the next morning. Jessica and a couple of her friends had taken James up on the offer to join them at dinner on the evening, but James was so angry at himself for letting himself get so distracted that he barely spoke to her – and had to endure Nelly eyeing him up suspiciously the whole time.</p><p>At dinner on Wednesday, Jessica had returned to her usual spot at the Ravenclaw table and James only had himself to blame when she barely looked at him. He mourned over a plate of chicken and his Potions textbook, whilst Freddie chatted away – once again – about their end of year prank. James had chosen to block the conversation out. Instead, he ate his food in silence whilst skimming over the ingredients of Liquid Luck.</p><p>When he’d finished, he packed away his book and said a quick goodbye to his friends and went over to the Slytherin table where his siblings and cousin, Hugo, sat with Scorpius. Lily often joined Albus and Scorpius for dinner a couple of times during the week, and sometimes James did too. When he approached, Lily smiled at him.</p><p>“Hey guys,” James said with a brief forced smile. Lily and Albus looked at him oddly, but James ignored it. “You’re coming to practice, right Scorpius?”</p><p>Scorpius – who had his head on Albus’ shoulder – sniffled and nodded.</p><p>“What? No,” Albus said, moving to look at Scorpius meaning he had no choice but to lift his head.</p><p>“I have to practice, Al,” Scorpius said and James internally cringed at the sound of his voice. His throat must be sore because his words were quiet.</p><p>“You’re sick, Scorpius.”</p><p>“I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” he assured, not even convincing himself. Scorpius stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder. “I just need to change, I’ll see you at the pitch,” Scorpius said, giving Albus a quick kiss on the cheek and waving goodbye to Lily and Hugo. Albus went to protest again, but Scorpius was already walking out of the Great Hall.</p><p>Albus went to say something to James, but he quickly retreated from the Great Hall before hearing what he had to say. Sometimes Albus could be irrational and difficult to talk to and James was absolutely not in the mood to deal with that right now.</p><p>He went to his own dorm to change into his Quidditch uniform and then headed out to the pitch, seeing Scorpius, Mia and Will already there and taking shelter under one of the stands. It had started pouring it down with rain, brutal and unapologetic. The fog was thick under the lights of the Quidditch pitch and James swore he heard the beginnings of a storm.</p><p>But that didn’t stop them.</p><p>Once everyone had arrived, they took to the skies for a brief warm-up. James had decided to get a mini-game going for practice that day, allowing Scorpius to show off his skills of Seeking. He pitted himself up against Rose and Kiara, having Mia on his team and Will on theirs. Yann would be Keeper for both teams, trying to stop them all from scoring on the same set of goals.</p><p>The rain seemed to battle harder as the time went on and the fog only got thicker, but James refused to call it quits until the snitch had been caught. They’d been playing for nearly an hour when Scorpius came up to his side after James scored a goal against Yann.</p><p>“James, I can’t see a thing,” he said, sniffling slightly.</p><p>James barely looked at him when he said, “maybe you should have worn your glasses then.” Before they’d started, Scorpius cast a charm on James’ glasses to stop the rain from covering them or fogging up during practice.</p><p>“You know I only need them for reading,” Scorpius huffed. James chose to ignore the bitterness in his tone.</p><p>“Look,” James said, turning to face him. “I know you’re not very well, so the quicker you catch this snitch, the quicker you can go home.”</p><p>Scorpius looked at him for a moment, surprised at his outburst and anger in his tone. Then he simply held his hands up in surrender and flew away, searching for the snitch once again. James, once again, chose to ignore his coughing from a distance. They resumed play, Will sending a bludger his way that he narrowly missed. It was a game of back and forth with the quaffle whilst Scorpius searched for the snitch. No one scored – which only showed how good the Chasers were getting. James wasn’t worried about Saturday at all.</p><p>Half an hour later, Scorpius finally caught the snitch. When he did, he touched to the floor, placing the snitch inside the equipment box, and walked off the pitch, coughing and sniffing as he went. James shouted after him to remember the last-minute practice the next morning. Scorpius threw up a thumb in response.</p><p>James turned back to the rest of his team and praised them on a good practice and reminded them of the same thing. They all seemed to be in a better mood with him than Scorpius, smiling and nodding in response. Together, they retreated to the changing room, engaging in half-hearted tired banter that James could barely engage in.</p><p>When he returned to his dorm, he all but collapsed into his bed and fell into a deep and much needed sleep.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>He would much rather his alarm not go off the next morning. He groaned as he turned it off, daring to rest his eyes for a few more seconds before rolling out of bed and tiredly changing into his Quidditch gear. He grabbed his broom – which usually gets polished after every practice but he didn’t have time between last night and now – and stumbled from his dorm and down to the Quidditch grounds.</p><p>He walked down with Kiara and Rose who he’d seen in the common room, and Kiara – apparently being a morning person – talked all the way down to the pitch about Quidditch tactics they could use and how best to beat Ohau. As an extra thing on the side, James had them studying their opponents in the best way they could without intruding on practices.</p><p>They were the first to arrive at the pitch and James got the equipment out of the cupboard. Whilst they waited, they set up a few drills they could do throughout practice – ways to manoeuvre through obstacles and various things like that. By the time they’d set up, the rest of the team had arrived and was awaiting instruction. All but one member.</p><p>James looked between them, wondering if the blond-haired boy was somehow hiding, then remembered it was difficult for him to hide when he was so tall and lanky. It’s a wonder that he made such a good Seeker.</p><p>“Anyone seen Scorpius?” James asked, though he knew the answer would be no. Not only do none of the team interact with him outside of practice, he was also the only Slytherin and therefore no one would share a common room with him. They all collectively shook their heads and James pouted. He knew Scorpius was ill, but he would at least like a note or something letting him know he wouldn’t be coming to practice.</p><p>“Okay, guys,” James started, “if you start warming up and start on some drills, I’m going to check he’s okay. Ask Rose for any help if you need it,” he said. The team nodded in approval before taking to the skies and James abandoned the pitch in favour of the Slytherin dorms.</p><p>James knew where the entrance was and the password to the common room. After Albus’ fourth-year antics, he’d insisted Albus keep him updated with the password. Of course, Albus refused. He didn’t, however, refuse to tell Lily, who keeps James updated. He uttered the password, being granted access, and thankfully managed to avoid any students due to the early morning. He walked up to the dorm that Scorpius and Albus shared and let himself in, seeing Albus – surprisingly – already awake.</p><p>Scorpius was resting peacefully on Albus’ chest; looking more like the sixteen-year-old boy he really was opposed to when he was awake. Albus looked up at the sound of the door opening and furrowed his brows when seeing James.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” He asked, voice low to avoid waking everyone else. Or maybe just to avoid waking Scorpius.</p><p>“I’m here to see why my Seeker isn’t at practice,” James bit back, folding his arms and leaning against Albus’ bed frame.</p><p>Albus carefully extracted himself from Scorpius, and James tried not to think about the two of them being so intimately involved that they <em>shared</em> a bed. “I convinced him to go back to sleep after his alarm went off as he didn’t sleep until 4 a.m.”</p><p>“Scorpius needs to practice,” James said.</p><p>“Scorpius <em>needs</em> to rest.” James hadn’t seen that fire in Albus’ eyes in a long time. “He’s sick, James, really sick. If you want a Seeker on Saturday, you need to let him rest otherwise he won’t be able to play at all and you’ll be fucked.”</p><p>“He was fine yesterday.”</p><p>“He was far from fine,” Albus raised his voice slightly and Scorpius stirred. No one else in the room did and James suspected there was a silencing charm around Albus’ bed. “And yet you made him train in the rain and made him worse.”</p><p>“Don’t be so dramatic,” he tried, brushing off Albus’ worries.</p><p>“You don’t understand! Can you stop being so ignorant and think about someone else for a fucking moment?”</p><p>James took a step back, shocked at his brothers’ outburst. It had been a long time – a really long time – since Albus had spoken to him like that. And it terrified him. Albus’ anger didn’t scare him because he was scared <em>of</em> Albus, it scared him because he was scared of <em>losing</em> Albus. They had spent years of their early teens dancing around each other. James being too scared to speak for fear of pushing his little brother further away from him. And slowly, Albus drifted. He drifted so far away that he turned into an entirely different person.</p><p>For a long time, James blamed Albus. He blamed Albus because it was <em>Albus</em> that was different; <em>Albus</em> that was pushing him away; <em>Albus</em> that had suddenly become colder and suddenly hated the world around him. Then James blamed Scorpius, the boy who was kinder than most people could see because they were blinded by false rumours and memories of his awful family name.</p><p>It wasn’t until Albus and Scorpius disappeared that James realised neither of them were the problem. <em>He</em> was the problem. He had been the one to push Albus away with the teasing and taunting. It was never his intention; he was just being how he thought all older brothers were. But Albus is sensitive, and James’ words were harsh, and he would never forgive himself from driving that wedge between them.</p><p>Which is why it hurt so much now to see Albus’ fury directed at him. Once again, James had let down his little brother.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” James said, his voice wobbling, eyes teetering on the edge of tears.</p><p>“He wasn’t going to go,” Albus said, looking at Scorpius sleeping softly. “And then you came over and pretty much demanded he be there.”</p><p>“I only asked him.”</p><p>“It sounded like much more than a simple question.” Albus looked back at him, the fury in his eyes only settling slightly. “You know about his mum right?” James nodded, furrowing his brows and wondering how this connected to their current conversation. “Because she had the curse when she was pregnant with him, it meant that it wasn’t a healthy pregnancy, and the curse often attacked him.”</p><p>“Are you saying he has the curse?”</p><p>“No,” Albus said firmly. “But it meant that he had to be born early if he was to survive, and therefore he had a lot of issues as a baby. One of those problems was a weak immune system, which he still has today. He catches illnesses really easy and because of this, he doesn’t take Pepperup potions because he wants his body to fight off the infection itself to try and boost his immune system, it’s a little experiment he’s got going. And making him train in the rain yesterday made it worse than it normally would be because he was getting better.”</p><p>“I didn’t know, Al,” James said softly.</p><p>“You wouldn’t, because everything’s about you. Because you refuse to look beyond the end of your…” Albus trailed off, eyes flicking between James and Scorpius. “Nose,” he softly finished. He dropped to the side of his bed and ran a gentle hand through Scorpius’ hair. “I’m taking him to Madame Pomfrey today, but he is not coming to practice, end of story.”</p><p>Scorpius flicked his eyes open at Albus’ touch and softly smiled, not even noticing James in the room. James shuffled slightly, feeling like he’s intruding on an extremely intimate moment.</p><p>“Hey,” Albus whispered.</p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>“No protests, I’m taking you to Madame Pomfrey later,” he said, earning an eye roll and a fond smile from Scorpius. “I’ve refilled your water bottle so try and drink, I’m going to get you some soup now and there’s also a Pepperup on the side that I know you’re not going to take.” There shared a quiet laugh. Albus reached forward and planted a kiss on his forehead. “You’re burning up.”</p><p>“I feel cold,” Scorpius said, and it was then James noticed he was shivering.</p><p>Albus pulled out his wand grabbed the hot water bottle Scorpius was hugging to his chest and cast a warming charm, placing it back in Scorpius’ arms.</p><p>“I’ll be back,” Albus said, bringing the duvet up to his shoulders and standing up. Scorpius had closed his eyes again and Albus ushered James out of the room, telling him to go back to Quidditch and that he’ll look after Scorpius, making sure he’s ready for the game on Saturday. James trudged back to the pitch, feeling like an awful captain and an even worse brother.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you again to @nicolejustdraws (twitter) for the drawing!<br/>See you on monday for the next chapter :)<br/>Kudos and comments make my day :)</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. the crowds and stands went wild</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for all the support so far, it means a lot and please keep it coming :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By the time Saturday rolled around, the rain had cleared for an odd winter blue sky, the sun blazing over the Quidditch grounds as a small layer of frost decorated the grass and plants. Luckily, James’ bad mood had (mostly) cleared along with the rain. He handed his new essay in and got a better mark for it, Quidditch practice went well despite their lack of Seeker (Scorpius had not been seen since Thursday morning after being strictly assigned bed rest by Madame Pomfrey to fully recover in time for the game), and Jessica didn’t hold it over him for being rude at dinner after he explained the situation.</p><p>Overall, James’ bad week was coming to an end, and if they could win that game against Ohau today, then maybe things will look up completely. The game was due to start in an hour, a thing James’ stomach wouldn’t let him forget. He tried forcing down some breakfast, but mostly just sat there wishing what he had managed to eat wouldn’t come back up.</p><p>Rose and Yann were sat with them, all donned in their brand new Hogwarts Quidditch uniform, sporting the colours black and gold that the professors had chosen for their school. Rose was ranting about how breakfast was the most important meal of the day, but James’ eyes were set on his plate of porridge, wishing he’d chosen a different breakfast food.</p><p>“Are we allowed to sit here, or is it strictly no-interacting-with-the-competition day?” A voice came, warning James of the presence of Sean and Tom, the two boys he’d been getting along with from Ohau – the very school they were competing against today.</p><p>James couldn’t help the smile that came across his face. “I’m sure we can make room for two more.”</p><p>Sean and Tom settled across from him. The two boys were also dressed in their schools Quidditch uniform, their brooms underneath the table next to James’ as they tucked into their breakfast. He was glad they could stomach something, whereas James’ stomach was about to give way to his nerves.</p><p>Luckily, Lily showed up. Lily was the one person who could make him feel better, a light in his life when everything seemed scary and dark. When Albus went missing the previous school year, it was Lily who kept him strong throughout it. James was a Gryffindor, a brave little lion, but that had scared him senseless. Together, they both got through it. Together, they grew stronger in Albus’ absence, and they fixed the broken parts of each other. And when Albus returned, they fixed his broken parts too. Like a family should.</p><p>So, when his sister showed up with her hair in two ginger space buns and smiled brightly at him, the nerves dissipated.</p><p>“James, did you know Mum’s covering the game today? I just saw her, she’s down at the greenhouses talking to Neville,” Lily said as she sat down. And just like that, the nerves returned.</p><p>“Mum’s going to be watching?” He asked as the lump rose in his throat.</p><p>Lily hummed as she spread an unhealthy amount of butter on her toast. “She’s really excited.”</p><p>His Mum had never watched a full game of his before. She’d always been too busy with work to make it to a school game, so she settled for James telling her everything about it in a letter. But now she was actually coming to a game, she was going to be watching him, analysing him, and secretly cheering him on even though she has to keep a neutral head for the article. The person who taught him everything he knew about Quidditch, the person he owes a giant thank you to for making the team is going to be sat in the stands and hopefully, James can make her proud.</p><p>“Don’t look so worried,” Lily said, reaching across the table to squeeze his wrist. “Mum is already so proud; you don’t need to prove anything.”</p><p>“What were you doing down by the greenhouses?” James asked, changing the subject.</p><p>Lily froze for a moment, pulling her arm away and continuing to slather cherry jam on her toast. “I was helping Neville.”</p><p>“At eight in the morning on a Saturday?” James pushed.</p><p>“Yes,” she shrugged, taking a bite of her toast and winking at him. James rolled his eyes and shook his head, knowing there was no way she’d admit to what she was <em>really </em>doing down by the greenhouses.</p><p>“Ready for the game?” Tom asked.</p><p>James smirked at him. “Tom, I like you, and therefore in order to keep this friendship, we must refrain from all Quidditch talk at the breakfast table,” he said. “However, having said that, I am totally ready to thrash your asses.”</p><p>James smiled his signature smile at them, teeth and all, and winked. Tom playfully gaped, holding his hands up in surrender.</p><p>“That sounds like fighting talk, Potter,” he spat his last name in a similar scarily tone to how James would imagine Draco Malfoy to say it. He had to remind himself that these people were his friends.</p><p>“All’s fair in love and Quidditch.”</p><p>James was distracted by his little brother coming up behind Lily and saying his name. When he looked at Albus properly, James noted the tired look in his eyes, the bags formed around them from a few nights of restless sleep. He wondered if there was something bothering him more than usual, other than the pressure of O.W.Ls and Scorpius’ recent bout of illness. James put the thought to the back of his mind, making a mental note to grab him after the game and check he was okay.</p><p>“Hey, Al,” James greeted and Albus only half smiled. He’d rested a hand on Lily’s shoulder, who had reached up to hold it. James cast around for Scorpius, who was usually attached to Albus at the hip and furrowed his brow. “Where’s blondie?”</p><p>“<em>Scorpius</em> is getting ready in the dorm,” he said, emphasising Scorpius’ name. Okay, maybe Albus was still a little annoyed with him.</p><p>“How is he?” Lily asked.</p><p>For a moment, Albus hesitated. He looked briefly at Sean and Tom, clearly not wanting to say much about Scorpius for fear he’d give something away. If they knew the Hogwarts Seeker was sick, they’d think they have some sort of advantage. James smiled to himself. Scorpius maybe a little bit sick, but he is still their secret weapon. He’s already seen as the teams weakest link, but he is truly the furthest thing from that. James nodded to Albus subtly to tell him to continue. Ohau can think whatever they want about Scorpius, they’ll soon realise they were wrong.</p><p>“He’s better, recovered well. Though he was sick this morning, but he insists it was just nerves. I’m going to try and get him to eat a little something,” Albus said, holding up a croissant wrapped in a napkin in show. It was then Albus seemed to catch onto what James was planning and smiled a little mischievously. “Go easy on him today, James, okay?” He said.</p><p>James kept his face neutral when he said, “of course I will. Tell him I’ll see him down at the changing rooms in half an hour.”</p><p>Albus nodded and winked. “Good luck today, James. And Rose and Yann,” Albus said, hovering a little nervously on Yann’s name. All three of them thanked him and Albus hugged Lily from behind, talking about how they were going to stand together to watch the match.</p><p>A few more people came up to wish James and the others good luck, including his ex-girlfriend, Lexi, and various people from other houses he didn’t really know that well but shared classes with. After he finished his breakfast – or what he could stomach of it – James, Yann and Rose said goodbye to Sean and Tom (and a brief friendly ‘may the best team win’) and headed off down to the changing rooms that the Hogwarts team would be using.</p><p>The Hogwarts team were set to use the pitch first for a warm-up, so once everyone had arrived, James gathered them around and explained a few drills they were going to do before they headed out to the pitch equipped with their brooms.</p><p>The stands were just starting to fill up as they took to the skies, going through a few drills they now knew like the back of their hand thanks to the many days of training they’ve had. The nerves were high and it was evident in their shaky passes and deep breaths, but James could understand the nerves completely. Once their time was up, the Ohau team came out for warm-up and James’ team headed back into the changing room.</p><p>As they geared up properly, they could hear the chatter of many students filling the stands. Amongst the many Hogwarts students would be the few extra students that came along from Ohau, as well as the Castelobruxo team and students, and the Ilvermorny group. It might be the biggest audience any of them have ever flown in front of. And it was one of their team members first ever Quidditch games.</p><p>There was lot riding on this for all of them. They wanted to win.</p><p>As well as that, James’ mum was there with no doubt other reporters from other newspapers, as well as scouts from national Quidditch teams looking for fresh meat. <em>That</em> was who James wanted to impress most of all. If he could be scouted for a professional Quidditch team, it would take a whole lot of pressure off everything for the rest of the school year.</p><p>As the sounds of the audience faded into a gentle murmur, followed by Professor McGonagall’s voice introducing the first match and giving a quick speech, James called his team to gather round.</p><p>“Okay, I know we’re all nervous, but what we need to remember is Quidditch is something we love doing. We go out there and we try our best, we play like our lives depend on it, but most importantly we have fun and we enjoy ourselves. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it doesn’t matter who’s watching or who we’re playing, what matters is we have the time of our lives and try our absolute best,” James encouraged. “Now let’s go and smash them!”</p><p>The team let out a bundle of cheers before they broke formation and shuffled out of the changing room. James was the last to leave, double checking everyone to make sure they had their uniform in check before leaving. James caught hold of Scorpius’ arm and held him back from the team slightly, then walking when they moved far enough ahead for them to have a private conversation.</p><p>“How are you feeling?” James asked, genuinely concerned.</p><p>“I’m fine,” he spoke, and James thought there might have been a hint of contempt in his tone.</p><p>“Al said you were nervous.”</p><p>“I’d be a fool if I wasn’t nervous,” he said, keeping his eyes trained forward.</p><p>James frowned. “Are you angry with me?”</p><p>Scorpius stopped and looked at him. “I’m not angry, it’s just… forget about it.”</p><p>“No, wait-”</p><p>“We don’t have time to talk about this right now, let’s just go.” Scorpius didn’t give him much of a chance as he jogged to catch up with the group, entering a conversation with Kiara quickly. James tried to shake it off, decided it was nothing to worry about as of now and it could wait until after the game.</p><p>James made his way to the front of the team, adjusting his glasses slightly so they sat firmly on his face. His need for glasses was the bane of his existence when it came to Quidditch, the black-rimmed frames falling down his nose, getting in the way and constantly irritating him to no end. However, he had learned how to ignore them in the years of playing, with help from a few spells his dad had taught him.</p><p>James waited for Professor McGonagall to finish her speech before she passed the commentaries onto Hugo, James’ cousin and Rose’s brother. This was his first year commentating, and therefore his first match, and James wondered if he was just as nervous as they were.</p><p>“Welcome, welcome, welcome!” Hugo boomed, more confidence to his tone than James had ever heard before. He turned back to share a look with Rose, who had a proud smile on her face. “Okay, settle down,” he ordered and eventually the crowd did. “Let me introduce the wonderful, the talented, the incredible – but maybe I’m a little biased – Hogwarts Quidditch team!”</p><p>The doors opened and blinded James, who squinted slightly before he started walking, waving his hands to the audience. He tried to spot his mum, but couldn’t immediately see her. Though he did spot the bundle of Weasley’s all with a giant poster with James’, Rose’s and even Scorpius’ numbers on it. As they mounted their brooms and took to the skies, Hugo announced them.</p><p>“Number one on the field and number one in our hearts is James Sirius Potter, captain and Chaser.” James gave an obligatory wave and wink towards a camera he spotted in the audience that no doubt belonged to a reporter. “Our two other Chasers is my beautiful big sister, Rose Granger-Weasley; and the kindest woman on this Earth, except when you meet her on the pitch, Kiara Goodyear.” The two girls also waved to the crowd.</p><p>“Next are our Beaters, twins Mia and William Hudson, joint at the hip despite their different houses and I, personally, wouldn’t want to be a victim to one of their bludgers.” There was a chuckle and a cheer from the audience. “Then there’s our Keeper Yann Fredericks, a fierce Gryffindor both on and off the Pitch. And finally our sneaky Slytherin Seeker, Scorpius Malfoy, though the only dark he is, is a dark horse.”</p><p>James swore he heard Albus cheering at Scorpius’ name over everyone else, and he’s not really all that surprised. As Hugo introduced the Ohau team, James caught Sean’s eye and winked – a subtle good luck. Sean responded by making a cut-throat gesture and winking back, to which James then pointed at him, then pointed to the floor meaning <em>‘you’re going down’.</em></p><p>The referee for the match was Ilvermorny’s Quidditch coach in order to avoid any form of bias. He announced commencement of the game, letting the snitch out, the bludgers and finally the Quaffle. James took possession instantly, stealing it easily from the Ohau Captain and sprinting across the pitch. He could see Rose on the other side of the pitch, following him and keeping herself open in case the other Chasers cornered James.</p><p>He was moments from the goalpost when an Ohau Chaser caught up with him. All James could see was a blur of purple in the corner of his eye, and he caught eyesight with Rose quickly before making a quick swerve and tossing the quaffle in her direction. Rose caught it, and then quickly passed it to Kiara – who had turned up out of nowhere. She quickly dodged a bludger with the sloth-grip roll before turning back upright on her broom and shooting for the goal, immediately earning a cheer from the Hogwarts students as Hugo announced the first goal.</p><p>James only allowed for a moment of celebration before he bounced back into the game, chasing after an Ohau Chaser now in possession of the quaffle. A bludger from Will intercepted the Chaser, allowing James to steal the quaffle and pass it straight to Kiara, but sadly another Ohau Chaser came out of nowhere to steal it mid-air and sprinted towards the goal. Yann tried to save it, but it slipped through his fingers at the last moment.</p><p>The game went back and forth like that for the better half an hour, until Ohau got the upper-hand and scored goal after goal after goal. They were thrashing Hogwarts 250-120 by the time the snitch was spotted, unfortunately by Sean first. James saw a blur of purple robes fly past him and internally cursed; looking quickly to find Scorpius in the air and hoping he’d noticed it too.</p><p>He didn’t spot Scorpius straight away and he could only hope the younger boy was somewhere chasing the snitch. The crowd was growing louder with each passing second and it seemed the rest of the players were on edge just waiting for someone to catch the snitch. If Scorpius did, Hogwarts could still win, but if not, they might as well kiss their chances goodbye.</p><p>They was a growing cheer from the Hogwarts side of the crowd and James saw Scorpius fly past him at a ridiculously fast speed. He was neck and neck with Sean now and together took a dive as the snitch changed direction and straight to the floor.</p><p>Silence washed over the stadium as everyone held their breath to watch. The Beaters were trying their best to intercept the opposing Seeker, but they were all too good in protecting them. The snitch flew closer and closer to the floor, but neither Seeker looked ready to give up just yet. James held his breath, diving was not Scorpius’ strong point. It’s why he had him practicing so much during practice.</p><p>It was the calm before the storm. There was barely a noise coming from anywhere except the faint sound of broomsticks flying through the air and the occasional hit of a bludger. Two hands reached out for the snitch, and only one wrapped around it as the referee called an end to the match. James could hardly process what happened or who caught it, missing the “MALFOY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!” from Hugo as he raced towards the other boy.</p><p>Scorpius jumped from his broom, rolling across the floor as his broomstick collided with the harsh ground. He didn’t pull up in time and if he didn’t jump, would have crashed against the floor himself. Still, he was holding the snitch in his hand and the crowds and stands were going wild. James touched down next to Scorpius and quickly inspected him with his eyes before kneeling down.</p><p>“Are you okay? Merlin, Scorpius that was so reckless!”</p><p>Scorpius seemed to groan a little in pain as he tried to push himself up with his right arm, then quickly moved to his left and nodded. “I’m fine, James,” he said as he pushed himself from the floor with his clearly better arm and stood on his feet.</p><p>“What were you thinking?” James scolded.</p><p>“I was thinking about winning, and we did!” There was a manic smile on his face, one of pure euphoria as he held the snitch out for James to see.</p><p>“Well, next time can you do it without risking your life? We sort of need a Seeker, you’re too important, Scorpius!”</p><p>Scorpius’ smile dropped and he stepped back from James. “You don’t have to treat me like I’m going to break, James,” he said sulkily and he picked his broom up and inspected it for any damage. “I’m stronger than most people think.”</p><p>James didn’t have time to respond as the rest of the team touched down, cheering and praising Scorpius for the catch. It meant they won the match with a twenty-point lead and he pushed the idea of Scorpius nearly flying to his death to the back of his mind and let the euphoria of winning take over. He was pulled in for several hugs and congratulated multiple times.</p><p>The cheers died down when Albus came pushing through the growing crowd to reach Scorpius, a look of fury on his face.</p><p>“What the hell, Scorpius?” He shouted, shoving Scorpius slightly before pulling him into a hug, holding him as though his life depended on it. “You terrified me! Why would you do that?” Albus was on his tip-toes, Scorpius practically holding his entire weight and from here, James could just make out the pain written on his features.</p><p>“I’m fine, Albus,” Scorpius muttered, trying to pull out of Albus’ death grip. When he was finally free, he grabbed Albus’ hands. “Look at me, I’m okay.”</p><p>“That was so stupid,” Albus scolded. James could see from here the worry in his eyes, the anger fading from his features.</p><p>“I know, I’m really sorry.”</p><p>“I know that winning, a-and proving yourself to James was important, but I didn’t think you’d risk your life to do so!”</p><p>“Woah,” James stepped in, confusion clouding his features. “Scorpius, you don’t have anything to prove to me.”</p><p>Both Albus and Scorpius looked at him, Scorpius with a slightly scared look and Albus like he knew he said the wrong thing. Scorpius dropped Albus’ hand and turned to face him properly, shrugging his good shoulder slightly.</p><p>“Yes, I do. We both know you think I need more practice, you made that abundantly clear,” he said, more sadness in his tone than anger – the emotion James thought should have been there. He hates, sometimes, how kind Scorpius is.</p><p>“No, I-”</p><p>“It’s fine, I get it,” he said, not letting him speak and simply grabbing Albus’ hand and walking away. He tossed the snitch at James last minute, who just about managed to catch it. James was just about to go after them, to explain himself, when Professor Longbottom called his name across the pitch.</p><p>James turned to him and jogged the short distance between them. He wasn’t alone; Professor Longbottom was standing with a man shorter than he, with greying hair and these bright, bright blue eyes. He was dressed in a fancy set of robes and James gave him a warm smile before greeting them both.</p><p>“Mr. Potter, yes?” The man spoke.</p><p>“Yes, sir,” James responded.</p><p>“I’m Philbert Deverill, manager of Puddlemere United,” he held his hand out for James to shake, which he did quickly, his mind whirring. “And I would like to offer you a conditional spot as Chaser on the team next year.”</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hoep you enjoy this chapters pic of the four members of the Hogwarts Quidditch team, Scorpius, Yann, James and Rose by @nicolejustdraws (twitter)</p><p>See you on thursday :)</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. kingdom lights shine just for you and me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I realise I completely forgot to post yesterday and I apologise! I hope you like this chapter and if you're enjoying the story, please let me know:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Chaser? My baby boy a Chaser on a professional team! Oh James, I’m so proud of you!” His mum beamed, scooping him up for yet another hug – at least the sixth one since he’d broke the news. He’d said yes, of course! No way was he going to pass up an opportunity like that. Mr Deverill said it was conditional to the next few Quidditch games, but if he plays the way he did today then he was a shoe-in for the offer.</p><p>He didn’t think he’d ever stop smiling again.</p><p>“Thanks, mum,” he mumbled, words muffled as his cheek was pressed against her neck. He was taller than his mum now, but she always seemed to hug him like he was still a child and James would never get tired of those hugs.</p><p>“Your dad’s going to be so proud, and your grandparents-”</p><p>“Woah, mum, maybe let’s not tell everyone yet? Just in case,” he asked, fiddling with the bristles on his broom.</p><p>“Okay, honey, if that’s what you want. I will tell your dad, though, unless you want to?” James shook his head in a telling sign for her to go ahead. “And of course, I would have preferred if it were a Harpies offer but I suppose I can get over that for Puddlemere, they’re a great team.”</p><p>James beamed even wider, somehow. “The best team, despite what Uncle Ron says.”</p><p>His mum stroked his cheek again and pulled him in for another hug, mumbling about how proud she was. James let himself melt into it. It hadn’t been long since they’d come back to Hogwarts, but James missed his mum a lot whenever he was away.</p><p>“Anyway, I love you, I’m going to see if I can catch up to Albus and find Lily, wherever she may be,” his mum said, pressing a kiss to his temple.</p><p>“I’m here!” Lily bellowed, jumping in on the hug by squishing in between James and Ginny.</p><p>Their mum pulled away sternly and looked at Lily with a threatening gaze that made even James want to sink into the Earth. “And why were you in detention with Neville this morning, missy?”</p><p>“Detention?” James snorted.</p><p>Lily shot James a deadly look, not unlike her mothers. “It was nothing,” Lily replied, sheepishly.</p><p>“You best hope it’s nothing, come on, we’re going to talk to Neville properly.” She waved goodbye to James and started walking off, motioning for Lily to follow her. Lily sighed and sent James an exasperated look before taking off in a jog after her.</p><p>James shook his head slightly as he spun in a full circle to see where he’d discarded his broom; it would need a good polishing after today’s match. He picked it up and let out a happy sigh, looking up at the stands and hearing the crowd shout and scream his name in joy as he scored point after point. Hogwarts may have only won by the skin of their teeth, but most of the points they did get were down to James.</p><p>The crowds were cheering in his mind, screams and whoops and claps echoing through his ear, the sound of his cousin announcing he’d scored yet another goal. It’s what he lived for; it’s what made Quidditch worth it. Knowing he was doing his school proud, his parents proud, his siblings proud, it was everything James had ever wanted.</p><p>For so long he feared being the disappointment. Being the oldest sibling meant setting up some kind of reputation, setting an example for Albus and Lily. It was a lot of pressure to put on a child, especially the first born son of Harry Potter, and the child named after the legendary James Potter and Sirius Black.</p><p>He feared it for a long, long time. Only up until Albus had that argument with their dad and everything seemed to change. James remembered sitting outside his brothers’ room, listening to him cry and wishing with all his might he could go in a comfort him without Albus hitting him and throwing him out, when he heard his parents talking.</p><p>
  <em>‘Why couldn’t he be more like James and Lily?’ His dad asked, exasperated</em>
</p><p>
  <em>‘Okay, maybe don’t be that honest.’</em>
</p><p>He realised that night that he could never be more of a disappointment than Albus was to his dad, and his heart broke for his little brother. Albus wasn’t a disappointment, he was just different. But different in the Weasley family isn’t good, they don’t understand different. Different blood is fine, but different house and a different personality was apparently not. James never really understood it, he just listened to the stories and developed a stupid opinion and because of that he pushed his brother away.</p><p>Until now, because when James looked up to the now empty stands, he could still see his brother cheering for him. Albus didn’t much like Quidditch, but he liked it for James (and probably Scorpius but James is going to let himself have this one). So much had changed, he and Albus had changed and James was glad he was rebuilding the relationship he had with his brother. They used to be best friends, he wants that again.</p><p>James smiled to himself, imagining the stadium not as Hogwarts but as Puddlemeres’, adoring fans screaming his name before he even makes a goal. That stadium would be his kingdom, a place for him to rule the world with battered dragon hide gloves and muddy leather boots. The crowds would go wild with every goal and caught snitch and James would be a star. Out there he would make magic far more enchanting than anything made with a wand, and all the kingdom lights would shine just for him.</p><p>Then there would be the fans, those who love him for James, and not James Potter. James Potter was all a big act, the perfect son of Harry Potter who loved the attention and was a bit of a prankster, who had girls falling at his feet. James was different, James fell in love too easily, had his heartbroken constantly, his brain was a mess, his pranks weren’t that good without help, and he let plenty of people down. James wasn’t perfect, but he was James. That’s who he was, and he was working hard to be a better person and a better brother.</p><p>He liked to think he was slowly succeeding.</p><p>James picked up his broom and began walking off the pitch, inspecting it for any damages as he made his way to the changing room. He was surprised to see Sean standing outside the Hogwarts changing room, already showered from the game and dressed in a cosy jumper. James immediately smiled when he saw him, the smile taking over uncontrollably.</p><p>“Good game,” James greeted, “shame about your loss.”</p><p>“Your seeker… he’s – er – really good.”</p><p>James smiled even wider. “He is.”</p><p>“I’ll admit, I didn’t expect that from him, thought he’d chicken out way before I did.” Sean shook his head slightly. “Anyway, I weren’t sure where you went after the match but I was hoping to catch you – to congratulate you mainly, but, er, I was also going to ask you something.”</p><p>James beamed and tilted his head. Sean was pretty cute when he got nervous, the way he wrung his hands with the hem of his jumper and his eye twitched slightly with nerves, it was endearing.</p><p>“Shoot,” James encouraged, feeling his heart beating a little faster than usual.</p><p>“I was thinking, wondering – er – was just curious if maybe you’d want to, I don’t know, go on-”</p><p>“JAMES!” A female voice called. He turned his head to see Jessica running towards him, throwing herself in his arms and in moments her lips were on his in a sudden kiss. James was so shocked he barely had time to react, but when she pulled away, he turned to see Sean had already gone. “Sorry,” she whispered, backing off slightly. “I’ve wanted to do that since I met you, and you were so great out there today.” She beamed an angelic smile and James nearly forgot his name.</p><p>“It’s okay,” he somehow managed over the beating of his heart. Jessica pulled the corner of her lip between perfectly white teeth and smiled shyly, crinkling her eyes.</p><p>“So, you wouldn’t mind if I do it again?”</p><p>“Absolutely not,” he breathed and then their lips connected once again. This time it was gentler and slower. James’ gloved hands found her waist and pulled her closer as her hands buried deep into his sweat-soaked hair, but she didn’t seem to mind. He slowly pulled away, flicking his eyes open to meet her enchanting green orbs. “I should go shower.”</p><p>“You should,” she giggled. “You stink.” She nudged him slightly and James gaped. She quickly pecked his lips again before backing away slowly. “I’ll see you at dinner, yeah?”</p><p>“Definitely.”</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>James swore to himself as he disconnected his lips from Jessica and checked the time on the watch on his left hand. He was late to Quidditch practice – again. He mumbled an apology and pecked her lips once more before taking off in a sprint down to the Quidditch pitch, legs nearly tumbling underneath him as he all but threw himself down the moving staircases.</p><p>After their win the previous week, the team became sloppy with their training. They seemed to believe that one win meant they were a shoe-in for winning the whole tournament, which James tried to get them to snap out of. Though, even he’d been sloppy that week. He’d been late to all three of the practices that week due to his inability to disconnect himself from his new girlfriend for more than five minutes.</p><p>Not that any of the team knew they were together. They would hate him for it. He was – essentially – fraternising with the enemy. And a part of him knew it was wrong, but he just couldn’t help it that his heart performed a triple somersault whenever his eyes connected on hers or his hands found her hand. He was well and truly in deep and he found himself wondering – not for the first time – if someone could really fall in love this fast.</p><p>He reached the Quidditch Pitch in record time to find his team sat in a circle on the floor in what seemed like a pretty intense discussion. Scorpius was just out of the circle, glasses on and head in what looked to James like an Herbology textbook. Their brooms were scattered about the place like none of them had a care in the world.</p><p>“Hey,” James greeted as he jogged up to them. “You could have started without me.”</p><p>“And you could have been on time,” Yann snapped as he stood up, grabbing his broom in the process. James’ heart sank, he definitely deserved that one.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I got held up,” James admitted dejectedly as one by one his team all took to their brooms and into the sky. James put down the equipment box he’d grabbed on his way down ready to release the balls when Rose came up to him.</p><p>“You might want to start being on time to practice, just a thought,” Rose said, a hint of scolding in her tone similar to his Aunt Hermione’s.</p><p>James winced slightly. “I’m sorry, I got caught up with Professor Reus,” he lied easily.</p><p>“Look, James, I get it. It’s an important year for both of us, but we’re all here, despite how much I need to revise for my O.W.Ls. Scorpius and I have a bet going over who can get the most O’s.”</p><p>“I bet Uncle Ron never expected you two to have a friendly rivalry,” James joked, earning a smile out of his cousin. “I’ll be better, Rosie,” he promised.</p><p>She nodded and gave his shoulder a brief squeeze before mounting her broom and kicking off. James let the balls into the air and practice was underway in a blur of multi-coloured house robes and passes of the quaffle. The sun was beginning to set, a faint golden glow blanketing the Quidditch stands and green grass.</p><p>From the outside, it may have looked like a pretty good practice, but it was far from it. The passes were sloppy, more goals were scored than saved (a fault on Yann’s behalf as his brain seemed to be faraway with the fairies), and the bludgers seemed to be all over the place. James had to dodge them on more than one occasion. It was probably only fifteen minutes into the practice when James drew the line and called them all down to the ground.</p><p>He touched down first and threw his broom down in frustration, pacing back and forth until the rest of the team joined him.</p><p>“What’s going on? You’re all acting as though you’ve forgotten how to play Quidditch!” James said, his anger rising. They all, at least, had the decency to look guilty. “Well? Because that was a shambles. We want to win right?” There was no response. “Right?”</p><p>The small group let out a mumbled affirmative. James looked to each of them, from Rose and Yann who were shoulder to shoulder and seemingly not even listening to him, to Kiara who was kicking a stray stone with her boot, to Mia and Will who were breathing heavily and keeled over, to Scorpius who looked the least guilty, wide grey eyes hidden behind his windswept blond hair and strapping and un-strapping his Seeker gloves.</p><p>“Look, the win last week was a fluke,” – everyone perked at that and started to protest but James persisted – “we didn’t play that well as a team and I think it’s because we don’t feel like a team yet. Everyone here is used to playing with others, so I think we need to do something that’s going to build our rapport.”</p><p>“Sounds stupid,” Yann replied, a venom in his tone that James rarely heard. Rose nudged him lightly and Yann only rolled his eyes. “No offence, James, but there’s people on this team I’d rather not be friends with.”</p><p>There wasn’t a name mentioned, but everyone knew exactly who he was talking about. Scorpius took a step away from the group and wrapped his arms around himself. His gaze was cast to the floor, like he could somehow will the ground to swallow him whole.</p><p>“If you’re unwilling to respect every member of this team, Yann Fredericks, I’m going to have no choice but to find a new Keeper,” James threatened with every ounce of ire in his tone that he could possibly conjure.</p><p>Yann stepped forward, challenging him. “He killed my friend; I don’t have to do anything.”</p><p>“Yann,” Rose whispered gently, a quiet warning.</p><p>James heard Scorpius gasp slightly. He looked over to see tears growing in his eyes and his breathing becoming short. It seemed like the fastest change in mood ever, Yann was suddenly fuming with anger, whilst Scorpius had collapsed to the floor battling for breath. James had heard of Scorpius’ panic attacks, but he had never witnessed one, nor did he know how to stop them.</p><p>Kiara went to go over but James held out a hand to stop her. He knew one thing: Scorpius didn’t react well to touch. James was about to ask Rose what to do when she was already sat next to him after asking Will to go find Albus, who should be studying in the library. James felt like he couldn’t breathe just watching him, his heart aching as he watched him claw at his neck as though it would somehow let more air in.</p><p>Yann was watching, until he suddenly shoved past James, knocking his shoulder hard, and leaving the pitch for good. James took one last look at Scorpius, seeing he was in good hands with Rose, and jogged off after Yann.</p><p>He found the other boy in the changing room, his gloves and boots discarded on the floor after they looked like they’d been thrown at the wall. Yann himself was hunched in the corner, his Gryffindor Quidditch cloak wrapped around his knees, dirty blond hair falling carelessly into his face as his shoulder shook with sobs. His knees were pulled tightly to his chest, face hidden away. His breathing was slightly elevated, and there was a sniffling noise coming from him.</p><p>James closed the door carefully before walking on quiet steps towards him. “Yann?” He asked gently. Yann never reacted, but didn’t tell him to go away, so James took it as a cue to step closer. When he reached him, James sat crossed legged on the floor and gently rested a hand on Yann’s back.</p><p>They never spoke, letting the silence fill up the room, broken only by the boys’ soft sobs. He wished there was some way he could help, but this is – and has never been – James’ strong point. There was a reason Albus pushed him so far away. James was helpless with emotions, he hated seeing people sad and hurting, but he had no idea how to fix it without making a poorly timed joke. He knew Yann needed more than that right now, so kept his tongue at bay.</p><p>When his sobs had lessened, when his heart didn’t feel so heavy, Yann lifted his head and wiped his face with the end of his sleeve. James paused in his rubbing motion and pulled his hand back, waiting and allowing Yann to speak first.</p><p>He stared at the discarded shoe in front of him when he finally spoke up. “It’s his birthday today,” he explained, his voice raw and brittle. “Craigs’.”</p><p>
  <em>Oh.</em>
</p><p>Suddenly it all made sense. Both he and Rose were good friends with Craig Bowker Junior – the boy who was murdered by Delphi the previous school year – and it would make sense for them both to crumble on the poor boys birthday. James knew him, he was a good kid. A kid who deserved a whole lot better than what he got.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” James said, mostly to fill the silence. “I should have known.”</p><p>“I didn’t mean to go off at Malfoy,” he explained. “I- it’s – it’s just so hard being without hi-” another round of sobs erupted from him, cutting off the end of the word. He choked on his tears, letting out all the pain and anguish that was filling up his body.</p><p>“Craig – he didn’t deserve it,” James said, earning a rapid nod from Yann.</p><p>“He – of all people – deserved to live.”</p><p>James shuffled closer and placed his hand back on his back, rubbing it softly as though it will help the sobs escape.</p><p>“I know it’s not his fault,” Yann said. “I don’t blame him; I haven’t for a long time. I just wish I knew more, wish I knew what happened, how it happened, why Albus and Scorpius were there,” he rambled. The details of Craig’s death and what happened on the Quidditch pitch was kept on the down low. Not even his closest friends got to know everything and James can’t even imagine how hard that must have been.</p><p>James only knew because Albus had told him one night in the summer after he’d woken from a nightmare and sought out James’ room. James held him whilst he worked through a crying spell and eventually he confessed his nightmare, telling James it was exactly like that moment on the pitch. It was then James realised the guilt Albus carried, the guilt of killing a young boy and torturing his best friend. He was there, he could have stopped it, and he didn’t and therefore, it was somehow his fault. They blame themselves enough; they don’t need others blaming them too.</p><p>“Knowing what happened won’t help,” James said.</p><p>“Don’t I deserve some closure?” Yann asked, finally meeting his eyes. His blue eyes were glassy with tears, cheeks streaked with tear stains and lip trembling. When all James could do was nod in response, Yann asked, “Have you ever lost someone?”</p><p>“Temporarily,” James said, remembering those long nights he stayed up with Lily, wondering if his little brother was ever going to return home. It wasn’t the same, James knew that. He had hope, whereas Craig wasn’t coming back. He was gone, forever.</p><p>“I hope you never have to feel this pain,” he whispered, eyes wide and honest.</p><p>James half-smiled. “Craig would be proud of you for how well you’re doing.”</p><p>“He was so good, sometimes it was unbearable,” he let out a shaky laugh. “He liked them, Albus and Scorpius, always tried to get me, Karl and Polly to be nicer, but we never listened.”</p><p>“Is that why you backed off them, after – you know?”</p><p>Yann nodded. “He would have wanted us to, so we tried. And I know I sometimes still say things I shouldn’t.”</p><p>“You know what you should do?” Yann shook his head. “You should talk to Scorpius.”</p><p>Yann looked at him, eyes wide with confusion. “He wouldn’t want to talk to me,” he stated matter-of-factly.</p><p>“Scorpius has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever known, if anyone’s going to give you a second chance, if anyone’s going to hear you out, it’ll be him. And maybe, if he’s ready, he’ll tell you what happened that night.”</p><p>“Thanks, James,” Yann whispered.</p><p>James shuffled around and pulled Yann into a side hug, wrapping his arms around him awkwardly. He let the other boy finish off his sobs into his chest, working through his grief. He couldn’t ever imagine losing anyone, let alone a close friend at such a young age. Craig had so much to live for, but it was all taken away from him.</p><p>They stayed like that for a while until Yann was ready to return to the pitch. They returned to Rose, Kiara, Mia and Will sat around Scorpius – who was sat next to Albus and leaning into his embrace – and they were all laughing. Will was telling some joke causing them to laugh obnoxiously loud without a care in the world. James quietly announced their return by asking if they could join, to which they obviously allowed and made room.</p><p>Yann and Scorpius made eye contact for a brief moment, but the previous events went unspoken as Will continued his story. They were all in stitches by the end, giggles filling up the open expanse of the Quidditch pitch. They went around sharing stories that would make each other laugh, allowing them to open up to each other in ways they hadn’t done before. It felt good to be a part of it, like they were finally bonding and becoming a family – like all teams should be.</p><p>It wouldn’t fix their problems, but it would be a start. They needed to get to know each other, they needed to trust each other and know each other like the back of their hands. Teams – families – didn’t work unless there was an undoubting loyalty among them, and this – out here under the blaring light of the Quidditch pitch with laughter ringing around them – was the start of it all.</p><p>James could see it already, the final game where the Hogwarts team traded their Quidditch caps for crowns and their brooms for trophies. This small group of misfits, of broken boys and fierce girls, would come together and win. They would do it themselves, for Hogwarts, but most importantly: for each other.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Another sad yet wonderful drawing from @nicolejustdraws!<br/>See you on monday (hopefully)!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. fighting dragons with you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The following week they were in the Quidditch stands watching rather than playing. It was Castelobruxo’s first game against Ohau, so Nelly (who normally didn’t pay much attention to Quidditch) was at the front cheering on her new beau. James didn’t know if she and Lucas were actually dating, but he was supportive of her either way. Nelly didn’t often take much interest in boys.</p><p>James was stood with Nelly, Zac and Freddie and the rest of the Quidditch team wrapped in their house coloured scarves, hats and cloaks. James had managed to grab Sean before the match and wish him good luck, but the other boy seemed a little off with him, making his heart sink. Still, he tried not to think about that as the teams kicked from the ground and into the sky. He saw Jessica making her way through the crowd and waved her over, an uncontrollable smile appearing on her face as he greeted her with a kiss to the cheek.</p><p>“Hey, you,” she said, latching onto him. “England is so cold,” she whined, making James laugh as he wrapped an arm around her. They were originally going to keep their relationship quiet, but they decided that if their teams had a problem with it, then they should simply get over it.</p><p>“Good job you’ve got me to keep you warm,” James replied in a sickeningly sweet tone. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard Albus scoff behind him and a giggle come from Scorpius. James sent a middle finger their way for extra measure, which only caused them both to laugh harder.</p><p>If James was being honest, the game was a little slow. He didn’t have much of a preference for who won, though Ohau were up a rather large amount of points from the last game and if they kept playing the field that way, then they would have a chance at the final whether they win or lose. Not that it mattered much, they beat Ohau once and they could do it again if they wanted to.</p><p>They watched the players back and forth in flurries of multi-coloured robes, not entirely sure who to cheer for when one team scored. All the Hogwarts students had chosen their own team to support, so the crowd was split fairly evenly in terms of cheers. Though James couldn’t hide his secret happiness when he saw Sean’s hand clutch the snitch, ensuring Ohau’s win with a look of pure euphoria painted across his face. James’ own smile no doubt matched it as Sean met his eye and winked.</p><p>He was pulled out of his reverie by Jessica tugging on his arm and telling him they were going to congratulate the winners. They followed Nelly’s lead down to the pitch, Zac nudging him and rolling his eyes when she took off in a little jog and flung her arms around Lucas. Jessica let out a little ‘aw’ at the two of them.</p><p>“Good game,” Zac greeted as they reached Lucas and a few others from Castelobruxo.</p><p>“Not the best game, though,” Lucas shrugged, looking a little defeated. “Still, there’s always next time.” He turned to James. “Can’t wait to beat you,” he winked.</p><p>“I, er-” James coughed awkwardly, hoping the cold hid his flushed cheeks. “That’s – erm – not gonna happen,” he finally spluttered, internally cursing himself. He heard Freddie let out a snort beside him and a whistled ‘smooth’ in his ear. James elbowed him.</p><p>“We’ll see about that,” Lucas smiled widely, winking again and walking off.</p><p>“Yeah,” James shouted after him. “We definitely will!”</p><p>At this point, Freddie was keeled over from his obnoxious laughs, so James gave him a hard shove and made him fall completely to the floor before walking off. Jessica went over to someone from Ohau that she’d become well acquainted with whilst James sought out Sean. He was in the middle of celebrations that James had to crawl through in order to reach him.</p><p>“Hey,” he said and Sean stopped what he was doing to turn to him.</p><p>“James, hey,” he smiled, though it seemed a little forced.</p><p>“I just wanted to say congratulations, that catch was pretty impressive.”</p><p>“Thanks, appreciate it,” he nodded slightly.</p><p>James nodded back and backed up a few steps. “Well, I’ll – er – see you around,” he waved.</p><p>“James, wait -” James stopped and looked at him with wide eyes. Sean hesitated for a moment then shook his head. “Never mind, see you around.”</p><p>James nodded his head again and turned on his heels, wondering why his heart felt a little heavy and why the lips of his girlfriend never seemed to heal it.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>“What’s this really about?” Albus asked as he sat next to him in the library. “You know, most seventh years don’t ask their baby brother for help with their N.E.W.Ts, which he’s not even taking.”</p><p>“You just called yourself a baby and don’t think I’m ever gonna let you live that down,” James replied, shoving a sugar quill into his mouth (Albus had brought them for their revision session, he said he stole them from Scorpius’ sweet drawer, which means he asked politely and promised to buy him some back).</p><p>“Can you be serious – and no, don’t make a joke about your middle name – for just one second?” Albus said, pointing a warning finger at him.</p><p>“I do really need your help, you’re good at potions and I’m moderate to average.” James pouted, earning an eye roll in response.</p><p>“Fine,” Albus relented, throwing his hands up before opening James’ potions book. James only asked Albus because he knows Albus had a tendency to study potions well above his age just to see if he could. It was that Slytherin ambition. His brother was actually smarter than most people gave him credit for, especially if he enjoyed the subject he was studying, and Al <em>loved</em> potions – almost as much as he loved magical creatures (which James would also be asking for help for if he had carried that subject on to N.E.W.T level).</p><p>They managed to go a total of thirteen minutes studying the Draught of Living Death before James got bored and distracted, instead taking to playing with his quill. He knew N.E.W.Ts were important, and that he did need to pass them in order to go on to play for Puddlemere, but there was also so much more going on right now that he couldn’t comprehend. With Quidditch, a girlfriend, the end-of-year prank and classes, James felt like he was on the verge of exploding.</p><p>He often heard the phrase <em>‘things always come easy to you’ </em>said to him. Even his own father thought it, but it couldn’t have been further from the truth. James worked hard for everything he had. He wasn’t handed the Chasing position on the Gryffindor team in his <em>second year </em>for no reason, he trained faster and harder than anyone else. He stayed up all night and trained all day, he researched the theory; he made sure to build a rapport with the team at the time. He lost copious amounts of sleep purely to make the team and it was all worth it. Until he had to make up his grades but that was a whole other stressful story.</p><p>Point is things aren’t easy for him. Just like they aren’t easy for Albus either. Or even Lily. Being a Potter is always harder than people expect and no one gets enough credit for it. Albus is slandered in the media for being different and for dating a Malfoy (you bet Ginny attacked the Prophet with everything she had for that particular article). James is always being talked about with ‘which witch is he dating now?’ and ‘will he live up to his mothers professional Quidditch career’. As for Lily, she is constantly compared to their Grandmother and always spoken about as though she is much older than thirteen, something that annoys both Harry and Ginny to no end.</p><p>“James, are you even listening to me?” Albus said, pausing from his sentence that James definitely was <em>not</em> listening to.</p><p>“Of course,” he lied.</p><p>“What was I saying?”</p><p>“I – okay, so I wasn’t listening!”</p><p>Albus put the quill down and focused his attention on James, piercing green eyes boring into his own hazel and James felt a little nervous. Albus’ stare had always be intense, it made James want to confess everything. He’d make a great Auror, but James knew Albus would never dream of following in their fathers footsteps.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Albus asked kindly.</p><p>James sighed. “Do you think you can love two people at the same time?”</p><p>Albus’ gaze softened. “I do,” he said simply.</p><p>“So, what do you do when you feel like that?”</p><p>Albus considered this for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip tentatively. James took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes before putting them back on a fixing his gaze back on Albus. Albus shrugged slightly.</p><p>“I guess you just have to be true to yourself… and to them,” he said eventually. James was just about to ask how when Albus continued. “You’re with Jessica right?” James nodded. “And you like her.”</p><p>“Very much.”</p><p>“But you also like Sean?”</p><p>“Eh – I – erm, huh?” James spluttered. <em>Nice one, James</em>, he thought, <em>way to deny it smoothly.</em></p><p>Albus grinned and shook his head fondly. “Scorpius is rather attentive, he pointed it out one time and I have to say I agree.”</p><p>“Why is it Scorpius can see other people flirting so well, but when someone flirts with him, he’s blind?” James asked, shaking his head as though the other boy would somehow know James was talking about him.</p><p>Albus’ smile dropped. “Who’s been flirting with Scorpius?”</p><p>“Oh, wait – no, no one – no one at all,” James said, gesturing his hands wildly in front of Albus. “Not that I’m aware of anyway, I just meant in general – and like, you told us the story of how you got together and that was pretty disastrous, Albie, even for you,” James squeaked. “I just meant he’s oblivious when it comes to himself.”</p><p>“Right,” Albus said, sadly.</p><p>James deflated. “Don’t worry, he’s all you. It’s only ever been you with him, he talks about you <em>all</em> the damn time,” James laughed, hoping to lighten the mood, but Albus seemed to deflate even further.</p><p>“I feel like you see him more than I do.”</p><p>James reached over and covered Albus’ hand with his. “Is everything okay?”</p><p>“We’re fine,” Albus said, quickly brushing it off. James gave him a look. “No, seriously, Scorpius and I – we’re great, I just wish I got to see him more. With Quidditch and O.W.Ls and I’m tutoring potions to third years, we just miss each other a lot.”</p><p>“But you’ll get through it because you’re you! You’re Scorpius and Albus, you guys were meant to be together.”</p><p>Albus nodded at him, picking the quill back up and trying to find the point in the book where they’d finished. He was quiet for a moment, but the way he was furrowing his eyebrows told James there was something else on his mind. He never pushed him, Albus would eventually spill when he was ready. Instead, he stayed quiet and waited.</p><p>Eventually, Albus put the quill back down and spoke, keeping his eyes firmly on the potions book. “I know you’re bi, but what did you think when I first came out?” He asked.</p><p>“Honestly?” Albus looked up and nodded. “My first thought was ‘thank fuck he’s finally admitting it’.”</p><p>“Really?”</p><p>“Oh yeah! It’s funny, I can spot love a mile off, you and Scorpius radiate it, but I just can’t seem to figure it out myself. I find myself wondering if I’ll ever have what you have.”</p><p>Albus shrugged. “I think so. You just have to be patient; you don’t fall in love in a day. It took me four years, and then another one to realise it was love.”</p><p>“But you were young.”</p><p>“You’re only seventeen, James.”</p><p>“I’m nearly eighteen, basically a granddad.”</p><p>“Okay, granddad, well let’s get back to potions, yeah?”</p><p>James smiled at his little brother and nudged him slightly before they both got stuck back into work, both feeling a little lighter now they’d gotten their worries off their chests.</p><p> </p><p>#<br/><br/></p><p>James was sat on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room, the buzz of alcohol swirling through his brain, legs swung over Zac and head leaning on Sean’s arm. He didn’t remember how many drinks he’d had already, or even where Freddie managed to get it from, but the warmth of the fire accompanied with the haze of alcohol and good friends meant James felt completely at ease for the first time in a long time.</p><p>The laughter came easy, loud and obnoxious without a care in the world ringing through the slowly emptying common room. Soon it was just a small group as they passed around the final dregs of butterbeer spiked with firewhiskey and shared stories that made them laugh until their bellies hurt. Freddie was prancing around during his retelling of a Weasley trip to the beach back when they were children and how they lost Dominique on a crowded beach for nearly four hours. It wasn’t funny back then, but the humour came afterwards when she was found eating ice cream with another family without a care in the world that her real family had been looking for her.</p><p>Others shared their stories of how they got lost as children but eventually found their way back. James couldn’t relate, but he did share a story about how Albus ran away one time, packed up three jumpers and a water bottle when he was eight, emptied his piggy bank and waved goodbye to mum at the door before walking approximately ten steps down the road and sitting at the bus stop. He watched three buses drive by and later came back crying because he was too scared to get on one (of course, they were all watching him from the window to make sure nothing would happen).</p><p>There was a peace to the world, a comradery between friends that bound them together that night that made James almost sad to be in his last year. Nights like these never came around often and soon they would all be moving on, getting their fancy new jobs and these would be the memories they’d have of Hogwarts. Bad alcohol, good friends and laughs so loud they woke the first years but no one cared.</p><p>“I don’t want to leave,” James said, voicing his thoughts.</p><p>The laughter died down and Nelly (who should definitely be in her own common room but was crashing with them that evening) patted his knee from where she sat on the floor. “Don’t worry, Jamie, we won’t forget about you,” she winked a glazed eye at him.</p><p>“Speak for yourself,” Zac remarked, earning a laugh from the group.</p><p>“We have ages until graduation,” Freddie said, waving off his worries. “And we have the prank to plan and <em>you -</em>” he pointed directly at James – “my friend, have an International Quidditch Tournament to win.”</p><p>“Bold of you to assume he’s going to win,” Sean said, reaching over to high-five Tom who agreed with a cheer.</p><p>“Ah ah,” Freddie waved a finger at them, “no dirty talk in our common room.”</p><p>“Sorry, boss,” Sean apologised.</p><p>“But,” Freddie said, “let’s make it interesting, huh?”</p><p>James was only meant to groan internally, but he couldn’t help it slipping from his lips. Sean laughed at him silently, but James could feel his shoulders move underneath him.</p><p>“Get in the spirit, Jamie. You in or what?” Zac said.</p><p>“I don’t even know what I’m agreeing to,” James objected.</p><p>“Hogwarts Vs. Ohau, battle of scores. James will pick an opponent from the Ohau team,” Freddie gestured around to the other members of the team who suddenly perked. “They will have a competition on who can score the most points in one game, the loser…” Freddie paused, dramatically stroking his chin as he thought of a punishment. “The loser has to do whatever the opposing team pick for them.”</p><p>There was a collective ‘ooh’ from the group around them and James rolled his eyes. Freddie knew him too well; he knew James would never turn down a challenge like this, especially when it involved Quidditch.</p><p>“Sasha,” James called across the room to a Chaser from Ohau with cropped pink hair. She looked at him with a challenging glare. “Want to be my opponent?”</p><p>“You’re on, Potter. But I’ll warn you now, I have a habit of making boys cry.” Another collective ‘ooh’ from Sasha’s challenge and James grinned. “So who picks the losing challenge? I like to know what I winning for,” Sasha continued.</p><p>Sean threw his hand in the air. “Can I pick James’?” Multiple people agreed and Sean grinned, running a hand through James’ hair. “If James loses, he needs to dye his hair blond.”</p><p>“BLOND?” James shouted sitting up and sending Sean a look of disgust. “But my hair is my best feature, the perfect shade between brown and red, you can’t possibly make me lose that.”</p><p>Sean grinned. “Don’t lose then,” he winked.</p><p>“Okay but how blond? Are we talking Scorpius blond because I’m not sure that’ll even be possible, and is it just a temporary dye? And is it my whole hair or just a small strand?”</p><p>“Whole hair, quite blond but maybe not Scorpius blond and only temporary,” Sean answered.</p><p>Nelly let out a loud laugh from the floor, which quickly led to Zac and Freddie laughing too. “I’m sorry,” she choked. “I’m just imagining you with hair as blond as Scorpius’.”</p><p>“Only Scorpius can pull that off,” James protested, “I could never!”</p><p>“Don’t lose then,” Sasha challenged.</p><p>“I will think of something for you and it’ll be your worst nightmare.”</p><p>Sasha shrugged and sat back in her chair. “Good luck.”</p><p>James sat back; refusing to lean against Sean this time and instead folded his arms and pouted in a childlike manner. He thought long and hard about what he could possibly make Sasha do should she lose. He smiled and leaned forward.</p><p>“<em>When</em> you lose, you have to ask your Quidditch coach for a dance at the End-of-tournament ball.”</p><p>Sasha gaped for a brief moment before closing her mouth and shrugging. “Fine.”</p><p>“I think we need this in writing,” Freddie said, getting his wand and summoning a piece of parchment and a quill and ink. He sat down at the table and wrote out the rules of the competition and the losing challenges for each competitor. Once done, he presented the quill to James. “Your signature, please, Mr Potter,” he spoke.</p><p>James took the quill and signed his name at the bottom of the parchment before passing it over to Sasha who did the same. They then shook hands and the bet was on, and James was determined not to lose.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading :)<br/>Another amazing drawing from @nicolejustdraws<br/>See you on thursday :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. a band of thieves</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ilvermorny won their match against Castelobruxo in the next game of the tournament, which meant the next match in a few days was Hogwarts against Castelobruxo, and if they win, it would mean they’re in the finals. James wasn’t exactly worried, watching two of their matches meant James and the rest of the team had been able to observe their weaknesses. Scorpius already had noted that Lucas – despite being perfect in every other aspect of his life – was not the fastest seeker. And Scorpius – unlike James – wasn’t intimidated by his presence.</p><p>The problem was that the team still wasn’t fully working well as a single organism. They never trusted each other; there was still some tension despite everything they’d been through and despite their best efforts to bond. So, James decided to ask the team some ways that they could bond off the pitch that would then lead to more trust and commitment on the pitch.</p><p>Which is how they ended up following a very enthusiastic Scorpius Malfoy down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He was bright in a way James hadn’t seen him be in a while, a spring to his step that he’d only just found. There was a flower crown entangled with his white-blond hair courtesy of Lily – she’d been studying with him moments before they had to meet and, unlike the rest of the team, he was still in his school uniform.</p><p>James was walking with Rose and Yann whilst Scorpius took the lead. It was starting to get dark, but they had permission from both McGonagall and Hagrid to be down here as long as they were back before the first year’s curfew.</p><p>“I keep wondering,” Yann began, “what I did in life that led me to following Scorpius Malfoy into the Forbidden Forest after dark.”</p><p>Rose snorted and slightly nudged him with his shoulder. “You said you’d be nice.”</p><p>“I am being nice, I didn’t mean it maliciously, and besides, he can’t hear me,” Yann protested, throwing his arms up in surrender. “Yo, Malfoy!” Yann shouted, catching Scorpius’ attention, who was quite further ahead than the rest of his team. Even though he was on good terms with most of them, he still preferred to be alone and that’s what James wanted to change.</p><p>Scorpius stopped and turned, his scarf blowing in the wind. It was nearing the end of February, but the nights were still bitterly cold. “Yes?” He asked, fiddling with his hands.</p><p>“What are we doing exactly?”</p><p>“It’s a surprise,” he said, deflating slightly. Yann looked like he was about to protest, so James sent a stern look his way and he simply nodded.</p><p>The team continued their way down the muddy path – the rain had been relentless the last few days – hanging onto each other to try to stop themselves from falling. Luckily, the rain had decided to stop for their evening of… well, whatever Scorpius had planned. Eventually, they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest and Scorpius stopped dramatically and turned to them.</p><p>“I hope none of you are scared of unicorns,” he said sheepishly.</p><p>He heard Will huff. “Are we really down here for some magical creatures lesson?”</p><p>“Not lesson,” Scorpius quickly jumped in. “Whenever I feel sort of… lost, I come here and spend some time with the creatures.” He turned around and walked further into the forest, gesturing for them to follow, which they did. “They can be really peaceful to be around and I think they bring people together in ways that human beings can’t.”</p><p>James didn’t really understand much of what that meant, but was willing to try if Scorpius – easily the smartest person he knew – believed it could help. They wandered through the darkness, trees standing ominously above them, unnerving James just a little. He grabbed hold of Rose’s hand, who seemed thankful for the touch and squeezed it in response.</p><p>When he saw the beautiful creature, however, all dread disappeared from his mind. In front of James stood four beautifully white unicorns, pure and blinding. Beside one of them was a golden foal, not yet old enough to earn its white remarkable fur or its legendary horn. James dropped Care of Magical Creatures as soon as possible (much to Hagrid’s dismay) but he never heard the end of Albus and his love for all things that had more than two legs. It seemed Scorpius shared the same love.</p><p>“Come on,” he encouraged, already stroking one of the pure creatures. “They’ll be gentle with you if you’re gentle with them.”</p><p>“Fuck it,” James said, taking a step up as captain and slowly walking up to one of the unicorns. He held his hand out, allowing for it to come to him instead of approaching him. The unicorn did so gladly, sensing James wasn’t a harmful figure and letting him stroke the creatures’ nose with his hand. An uncontrollable smile appeared on his lips, a sweet serenity washing over the forest.</p><p>Maybe Scorpius was right, he thought. Maybe this would be a peaceful and calm environment for them all the bond. He looked around at the other members of the team to see them all slowly getting to know the creatures. Kiara and Mia were with Scorpius playing with the baby unicorn, whilst Yann and Will were laughing together whilst stroking another. Rose, however, hung back slightly. She was a little wary of magical creatures, the only class she never did well in and decided not to take further.</p><p>James abandoned his unicorn for a moment and walked over to her. She was standing just at the edge of the clearing, leaning up against the tree but despite her chilled stance, she was far from chill. She was fidgeting with the ends of her scarf, fraying the cotton and pulling at it until it came loose, then watching the ends blow away with the wind. A strand of curly brown hair had loosened from her space bun and was blowing in front of her eyes, but Rose didn’t seem to notice it.</p><p>“Sickle for your thoughts?” James greeted as he reached her.</p><p>Rose was brought from her trance and looked at him. “Do you ever feel, sort of, silly?”</p><p>James raised his eyebrows. “Silly?”</p><p>“Like, these creatures are beautiful, yet I’m scared of them. That feels a little silly of me,” she mused, half shrugging.</p><p>“It’s not silly, Rosie. Your fears are never silly and we should never be ashamed of them,” he assured.</p><p>Rose scoffed. “It’s alright for you; you’re not scared of anything. Why would you be, you’re James Sirius Potter.”</p><p>James bit back the urge to tell her she couldn’t be more wrong. James Sirius Potter was his name, but that didn’t make him fearless. Being a Gryffindor didn’t make him fearless either. He thought he wasn’t afraid of anything for the longest time, a way to desperately prove his worthiness of wearing red and gold robes. But the more James grew up, the more fears he realises he has. He fears disappointing his parents; being unable to be loved; not being able to have kids; losing his family; not making his mark on the world; oblivion.</p><p>James Sirius Potter was far from fearless.</p><p>“And you’re Rose Granger-Weasley, and in this family we face our fears.” James offered his hand to her. “What do you say?”</p><p>She hesitated a moment before nodding bravely, taking James’ hand. James led her over to the unicorn, giving her hand another squeeze and smiled up at the ethereal creature. “They’re completely harmless and rather peaceful and innocent, think of them as a much bigger but still gentle Scorpius.”</p><p>That got a laugh out of Rose which is what James was hoping for and her shoulders relaxed slightly as she eased up to the magical creature. Unicorns were a brilliant idea, they had an aura about them that could put most people at ease in a way other creatures couldn’t. Rose held up her hand and took a deep breath, bravely only moments away from stroking the creature when Scorpius shouting from across the clearing made her jump and she snatched her hand away before taking a few steps back.</p><p>It wasn’t angry shouting, however, it was joyous.</p><p>“AURORA!” Scorpius called out. “Rory,” he amended. James and Rose looked over, seeing Scorpius dropping into a sitting position and amicably stroking… thin air?</p><p>“Has he officially lost his mind?” he heard Mia ask Kiara, earning a snort from the other girl.</p><p>“What are you doing in here?” continued Scorpius, his tone full of joy and a large grin on his face. “You’re a little far from home, huh?”</p><p>“Scorpius,” Yann said, approaching him on slow footsteps. “Is that a baby Thestral?”</p><p>James sucked in a breath, knowing nothing but darkness about these creatures. Yet here was Scorpius, a boy so full of light, playing happily with a creature of darkness. Scorpius stopped briefly to look up at him, his smile fading slightly.</p><p>“You can see them?” Scorpius asked, voice barely a whisper and nearly getting lost in the wind.</p><p>Yann nodded. Scorpius patted the floor next to him and smiled softly. Yann hesitated a moment before taking up his offer and dropped down beside him. James took it upon himself to join them, despite not being able to see the creature and it seemed the rest of the team decided to as well. Scorpius seemed to have stopped stroking in front of him, but was now stroking something as though it was sitting in his lap. James had no idea how big a baby Thestral was, but found the idea of a small horse sitting in his lap rather amusing.</p><p>“What was her name? Aurora?” Yann asked, reaching over to give the creature a stroke too.</p><p>“Yes, I named her. She was born a few months ago, just before Christmas. I sometimes come to help Hagrid with them as not many people can see them, have been doing so since third year,” Scorpius replied. “I sometimes think I should have named her Bambi, she is the clumsiest little creature I’ve ever seen,” he looked at James, “worse than me.”</p><p>“Is that possible?” Will said. “Pretty sure you’re the clumsiest Quidditch player in existence.”</p><p>That earned a laugh from the rest of the team, even Scorpius.</p><p>“Why are we really here?” James asked Scorpius.</p><p>Scorpius shrugged. “It was Albus’ idea. After what happened in fourth year, Albus and I… we struggled to talk about it. Usually, we could talk about everything, but there were a few subjects we couldn’t talk about: my mum’s death, Albus’ father/son issues, and what we have now labelled as <em>That</em> time. It sort of drove us apart, we wanted to be with other but there was this big unspoken… cloud hanging between us.</p><p>“It was Craig’s first birthday after it happened that Al and I came down here. Albus could see the Thestrals because of…” Scorpius took a deep breath, blinking a few times to push away the tears. “…that night. I’ve always been fond of Thestrals, despite what everyone says, they’re not a death omen or a creature of dark magic, they’re quite kind and I find comfort in them, and I thought he might too.</p><p>“We found a way to connect that night, like somehow it was easier to talk when we were in a place of comfort. But you’re all looking at me like I’m crazy so we can go, I’ll just take Aurora back to her clearing.” Scorpius stood quickly before quickly apologising to the invisible creature. “Come on, Rory.”</p><p>James stood too. “Whoa, you’re not going alone,” he protested. “It’s dark.”</p><p>“I’ll be fine, James, the clearing is just down there. I’ll be right behind you guys.”</p><p>“No, we’re all going,” he said with as much authority in his tone as he could muster. It seemed to have worked as the team let out a mumbled collective groan, but followed Scorpius through the woods nonetheless.</p><p>Scorpius picked up a branch from a tree and was throwing it for the baby Thestral, and James wished he could see it. It brought Scorpius so much joy, he wondered what that felt like. As he watched Scorpius, he felt a pang of jealously in his heart, and not for the first time. Scorpius seemed to have everything that James wanted: he could connect with Albus; he loved and was loved unconditionally. He knew, partly, it was wrong to be jealous. Scorpius’ life as a whole was nothing to be jealous of, not with the bullies and the loss of his mum and everything else he’d been through, but he had the good things that James wished he had.</p><p>James had never really liked the Forbidden Forest, he’d heard every single horror story imaginable and as they crept through the dark trees, he felt a shiver go down his spine. They stuck to the path, on direct order from Scorpius, but it wasn’t until they reached the Thestral clearing that they realised they were a member of the team short.</p><p>“Where’s Kiara?” James asked, looking directly at Mia, who had been walking with her.</p><p>“She said she saw a rare plant and went to get a closer look. She’ll be right behind us,” she said, shrugging but looking back at where Kiara must have disappeared.</p><p>Scorpius came rushing forward, fiddling with his hands frantically. “She went off path in the Forbidden Forest after dark?” he said, sounding bewildered.</p><p>“She’ll be fine,” Yann said, trying to ease the tension.</p><p>“Not all creatures are as kind and gentle as Unicorns and Thestrals, if she gets on the wrong side of them then-”</p><p>“Well it’s your fault for bringing us down here in the first place,” Will accused, shoving a finger in Scorpius’ chest. Scorpius stepped back, rubbing a hand over his chest and neck as his breathing started to increase.</p><p>“I- I just wanted to help,” he stuttered, trying to take in a deep breath.</p><p>“Scorpius didn’t do anything wrong,” Yann defended, stepping in front of him, blocking Scorpius from Will.</p><p>“We wouldn’t be down here if the genius didn’t suggest it and we wouldn’t have lost a team member.”</p><p>“And Kiara has a mind of her own and chose to walk away, that has nothing to do with him!”</p><p>Whilst Yann and Will continued to argue and place blame, James turned to Scorpius, who was now struggling desperately to breathe. James tried not to panic as he knew that would only make Scorpius panic more, but he was still unsure on how to handle this. It was Albus who could talk him down; Albus who helped him get through these extremely difficult times. It’s what made the two of them so perfect for each other. They were each other’s anchors, the kept each other grounded when they spiralled.</p><p>But Albus wasn’t here, so James had to try his best.</p><p>“Hey, hey,” he whispered, tentatively taking Scorpius’ cheeks in his hands. “Look at me.” He was surprised when Scorpius actually listened and settled his bright grey eyes on James’ hazel. “Deep breaths, okay?” James scrambled for something useful. “Think about happy things; think about Albus and the beach and springtime and Quidditch and am I even helping? Just a little?”</p><p>In his panic, Scorpius just managed to nod his head slightly. James felt pretty useless, but he kept going. If anything was his speciality, it was talking.</p><p>“I’ll tell you a story, yeah? When we were kids, Albus, Lily and I used to play pranks on mum and dad all the time, just little things. Uncle Ron used to give us products from the shop that would help us, and one time we replaced dad’s shaving cream with a blue hair dye potion and it dyed his chin blue for nearly a whole week.” Scorpius let out a breathy laugh. “Pretty sure dad was ready to disown us all after that particular one; he had an important meeting at work.”</p><p>During the story, Scorpius’ breathing had slowly returned to almost normal. His cheeks still felt flushed beneath James’ fingers.</p><p>“Thank you,” he spoke as James pulled his hands away, taking a few more deep breaths now that it was a little easier.</p><p>“Come on, let’s find Kiara and get out of here,” James said, smiling at him. Scorpius nodded and pulled his robes around him tightly. “Right,” James said, addressing the rest of the group. “Enough placing blame and enough shouting. We’re a team and as a team we are going to pull together, we’re going to find Kiara and we’re going to go back to the castle. If I hear one more person put the blame on Scorpius or anyone else here, you’ll be axed from the team and that’s a promise.”</p><p>James turned to Mia. “Where did she go?”</p><p>“Just down here,” she said, taking the lead with Will, following the path that they’d come from. Rose came up next to James and sent him a smile as Yann and Scorpius followed just behind them, talking lowly about something James couldn’t hear. “It was here where she went down there,” Mia pointed.</p><p>“Well, let’s go.”</p><p>As a team, they split off from the path and called out for Kiara, hopefully not loudly enough to disturb the other creatures lurking in the woods. James couldn’t help but feel as though he was being watched, yellow eyes creeping in the shadows, following his every move. This part of the forest was off limits to students, yet here they were and getting further and further in. Still, James was a Gryffindor and little things like a forest full of the weird and scary wouldn’t stop him if it meant helping a friend.</p><p>Luckily, they found Kiara fairly easily, hunched over a fluorescent orange plant that James had never even seen before in books. But then, herbology wasn’t his greatest subject, it was Lily who preferred it (despite the fact that she couldn’t keep a plant alive to save her life). When they had located her, they had to pry her away from the plant, like it had some kind of hypnotic hold over her.</p><p>Between Yann and Scorpius, the two boys managed to get them back on to the path by putting their heads together and retracing their steps, which James was incredibly thankful for. When the castle came back into sight, James felt himself relaxing properly for the first time since they’d crossed the line into the forest. It was nice and enlightening, but James didn’t think he’d ever trust Scorpius with one of his ideas again. This is a boy who agreed to jump off the top of a roof train.</p><p>He probably shouldn’t have been surprised to see Albus waiting for them in the Entrance Hall, tackling Scorpius into a hug as soon as he came into sight. He was surprised, however, to see his own girlfriend looking at him with her arms folded and eyebrows raised. It wasn’t quite the warming greeting that Scorpius received.</p><p>“Where have you been?” Jessica asked as James approached her. The rest of the team split off in opposite directions to return to their dorms</p><p>“We got lost,” James explained, feeling a little guilty for worrying her.</p><p>“I could barely focus at Quidditch practice because you said you’d be back ages ago and you weren’t!” She scolded, her voice rising. He saw Albus looking at him through the corner of his eye but ignored it.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “it really was an accident.” He reached out for her hands but she stepped backwards. “I really didn’t mean to worry you,” he spoke.</p><p>She seemed to soften slightly and nodded her head. “It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re back safely,” she smiled at him. “It’s late and we have classes tomorrow, we should probably get some rest.” She gave him a brief kiss before taking off in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower where the Ilvermorny students were staying.</p><p>“She’s right,” James said as he turned to Albus and Scorpius, “should probably get some rest,” he waved goodbye to them both before either of them could say anything. James would have offered to walk Jessica back to the dorm, as they’re in the same direction, but she clearly didn’t want to be around him.</p><p>He trudged up to the Gryffindor common room with a heavy heart, trying to think of ways to fix what he’d done.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope ya'll are continuing to enjoy this, please let me know :)<br/>This chapters drawing is probably one of my favourites, it was originally for another abandoned WIP that I chose to include in this one instead because I loved the idea so much, so I hope you like it too (from @nicolejustdraws)<br/>See you on Monday :)</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. hope they shine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just wanted to say a big thank you to anyone still reading and supporting me, it means a lot &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>James was nearly late to the match against Castelobruxo, meaning he missed the beginning of their warm up. When he eventually ran out onto the pitch, only five members of his team were in the air and James couldn’t see the familiar blond hair of Scorpius. He mounted his broom, flying a few laps around the pitch before catching Yann at the goal who was letting Kiara practice her goals. </p><p>“Oh look, our captains here,” he said sarcastically as he caught the quaffle and yelled some advice to Kiara. </p><p>“I’m sorry,” James said immediately. “Where’s Scorpius?” </p><p>“In the changing room, he didn’t look too great,” he explained, barely looking at James. </p><p>“He’s sick again?” </p><p>“Not exactly,” Yann said, and then looked at him. “I need to finish warm up, some of us care about this match.” </p><p>“I care too.” </p><p>Yann caught the quaffle and held it under his arm. “Coming to practice late is one thing, but to a game? That’s just neglectful. If we lose this, I hope your little girlfriend is worth it.” James was taken aback a little, but he supposed he deserved it. </p><p>After accidentally pissing Jessica off when they were back late from the forest a couple of days ago, James has been trying everything to get back on her good side, including showing up late to Quidditch practice the day before which the team were not happy about. He knew he should have been focusing on Quidditch, but Jessica… he’d never felt this way about someone before, she was different. </p><p>But James tried not to let what Yann said go to his heart, he had faith in himself and in the team that they could win this match. That’s if they even had a seeker. He did a couple of laps, throwing the quaffle back and forth with Rose, hoping that Scorpius would make an appearance, but after about five minutes, he still hadn’t. </p><p>So, James touched down and made his way off the pitch and into the changing rooms. He was about to go in when he heard voices from the other side of the door and decided to stay put. He quickly recognised the voices of Scorpius and his little brother. </p><p>“That’s the third one this week,” Albus’ voice was low. </p><p>“I know,” Scorpius said, sounding a little breathless. </p><p>“Are you worried about the match?” </p><p>“I don’t want to…” Scorpius trailed off, clearly unsure on what to say. There was a long pause where James considered entering, but decided against it. “I want to quit.” </p><p>James couldn’t hide his gasp. </p><p>“But I won’t, mainly for James,” Scorpius continued. </p><p>“If it’s making you unhappy and panicky, James will understand.” </p><p>“But it wouldn’t be fair. James needs this Chasing offer, he needs this win, and I’m not going to be the one to take that from him. I’ll just take that calming draught that Madame Pomfrey gave me,” there was some shuffling where James guessed both boys stood and Scorpius rummaged through a bag. </p><p>“You know how you get after taking that,” Albus half-protested. </p><p>“I’ll suffer the consequences after the match.” </p><p>That was when James decided to stop eavesdropping and entered, seeing Albus and Scorpius stood at the other end of the changing room, a calming draught in Scorpius’ hand which he quickly hid behind his back, like taking it meant he was breaking some kind of rule. </p><p>“Are you coming to warm up, baby Malfoy?” James asked. </p><p>“Yeah, be right behind you,” Scorpius assured, sending him a smile. </p><p>“Are you okay?” </p><p>“Never better,” he lied, though James decided not to push it. Scorpius – much like his brother – was not one for opening up about his feelings. James wondered how they lived like that, how they kept everything buried within their hearts; how they lived with that permanent weight on their shoulders. </p><p>James exited the changing rooms and back onto the field, where – true to his word – Scorpius showed up seconds later. They completed their warm up and retreated behind the stands awaiting for Hugo to make their announcement onto the pitch. Hugo was currently announcing the Castelobruxo team onto the pitch, introducing each of the players in turn. He was about to start on Hogwarts when James’ attention was turned by a boy calling his name, he turned to see Sean running up to him. </p><p>“I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I just wanted to say good luck,” he said, smiling brightly and giving him a cheeky wink, causing James’ heart to flutter. </p><p>“Thank you,” he said sincerely. Sean reached over and squeezed James’ elbow. </p><p>“Party tonight in the common room if you win?” He asked. </p><p>“You bet,” James confirmed. </p><p>Sean flashed him one more smile before awkwardly waving and retreating back up to the stands to watch the match. And maybe James should have been sad that Sean had wished him good luck but his own girlfriend had barely spoken to him that morning, but that was at the back of his mind.  </p><p>James flew better than he had ever flown before and Hogwarts wiped the floor with Castelobruxo, which gave James bragging rights against Lucas. </p><p> </p><p># </p><p> </p><p>There was a clinking of glass coming from the front of the Great Hall, moments before dinner was supposed to be served. It was a tradition that had started every match Saturday that McGonagall would give a short speech to congratulate the winners and commiserate the losers of each game. The hall quietened down to a small mumble as slowly all attention turned to the front of the hall. </p><p>“Thank you,” Professor McGonagall started, putting down her glass. “I do have an announcement, but I would first like to say congratulations to the Hogwarts Quidditch team for their riveting win. Castelobruxo played a good game, but Hogwarts showed their true colours and are heading to the final!”  </p><p>Cheers sounded throughout the Great Hall as the other students praised the team and James joined in, making sure the team knows how incredibly proud of them he is. </p><p>“A special mention to our seeker, Scorpius Malfoy, for that absolutely incredible finish which ruled Hogwarts the winners, and Captain James Potter for the most goals scored in the match.” There was another round of applause and whereas James basked in it, he spotted Scorpius across the hall shrinking into himself. </p><p>“Now, for our announcement: the week before the Quidditch Tournament final, Hogwarts will be hosting Spring Solstice Ball, where all four schools come together for a night of well-mannered frivolity here in the Great Hall.” </p><p>This time, there was a mixture of excited chatter and external groans as the students processed this information, deciding whether or not they were excited about a ball. James, for one, was over the moon. He loved any chance to get dressed up in his better dress robes and spend the evening getting into mischief with his friends. He also wouldn’t mind the opportunity to share a dance or two with Jessica as it won’t be long before she has to go back to America. </p><p>James tried to catch Jessica’s eye across the room, but she seemed to be looking everywhere but at him and James sighed; he’d see her tonight at the party being hosted in the Gryffindor common room. </p><p>Professor McGonagall let them proceed with their dinner which James, Freddie and Zac finished quickly so they could get back to the common room to prepare for the party. Later, Rose, Yann and Polly came to help them, whilst Freddie went and provided the alcohol for the party (James didn’t ask where he got it from, some secrets are best kept a secret). James was in charge of the music, to which he had made a playlist that mainly consisted of muggle bands with a few popular wizarding songs by the request of his friends. </p><p>James didn’t fully relax until the party was in full swing and James had had a one (or five) butterbeers which may or may not have a little <em>extra</em> in them. More and more students were piling into the common room, most from Hogwarts but some of the other schools were around to. There was currently an Ohau versus Ilvermorny Quidditch Beer Pong going on in the corner, as well as groups playing drinking games and others dancing. Freddie was on the dance floor with Zac when James saw Albus enter the common room.  </p><p>“Albus,” James greeted with a grin on his face. He then squinted his eyes behind his glasses and looked around him, wondering where his other half was. “Where’s baby Malfoy?” </p><p>“We can be seen without each other, you know?” Albus argued, but all it took was an eyebrow raise from James to make him relent. “Asleep, he was excited to come, but he crashed about twenty minutes ago.” </p><p>“I didn’t think you’d come without him,” James commented offhandedly as he wrapped an arm around Albus’ shoulders and led him towards the table of butterbeer. He picked one that hadn’t been spiked with firewhiskey – James was still a responsible brother, even when intoxicated – and handed it to him. Albus took a shaky sip as he looked around. </p><p>“I promised Lily I’d come, where is she anyway?” </p><p>“It’s Lily, she’s around,” James waved off, but took a quick look around for his sister. She’d come down the stairs from the dorms donned in multi-coloured glitter across her eyelids and cheeks, her hair in two space buns with a pair of scrunchies that matched her shoes and in a pair of dungarees which she’d sewn flowers onto herself.  </p><p>“ALBUS!”  </p><p><em>Speak of the devil</em>, James thought as the two brothers turned to face Lily making her way over to them.  </p><p>“You came, come on, let’s go dance!” And just like that, Albus was ripped from his side and pulled away by their little sister. James watched them for a little while, Lily dancing without a care in the world despite her two left feet and Albus awkwardly bobbing along, until he grew a little more confidence in Lily’s presence. She had that power about her, the power to spread her sunshine to others, to make them happy and carefree.  </p><p>James felt his heart swell with love for his siblings. </p><p>James picked up another drink and went in search of his girlfriend who was at the beer pong table. He greeted her with a smile which she returned and wrapped an arm around his waist. </p><p>“How many have you had?” Jessica asked, only a small hint of amusement in her tone.  </p><p>“Only a little more than a few,” he lied, winking at her. </p><p>Jessica’s amusement fell. “You don’t want to have too many, James.” </p><p>“Jess, it’s fine, I’m celebrating.” </p><p>Jessica rolled her eyes and took the ping pong ball off another member of her team to take her shot. She fell short and turned back to James. “I can’t stay long, we have practice tomorrow.” </p><p>“I feel like we’ve hardly seen each other,” James protested. </p><p>“I know,” she softened and hugged him again, looking up at him. “But we have our match that determines if we go to the finals in two weeks, you know how important that is.” </p><p>“I know,” James agreed. Jessica smiled and leaned up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. “I love you,” James said, speaking from the heart.  </p><p>Jessica stepped back and looked at him. “Oh. Wow. Thank you,” she said, a little unsure. James felt his heart break slightly, but tried not to let that get to him. The conversation cut off when Jessica was pulled back in for another game. </p><p>James waited around until the game was finished, Ohau winning by only one cup, before leading Jessica off to the dance floor. Most of the night was an honest blur of dancing and conversations James would not remember in the morning. He was somehow tricked into downing his drink three times and lost a bet which meant he would have to take a shot. Jessica left pretty early so James spent a while wandering around trying to find where his friends had disappeared to. He mostly came up empty and headed to the dance floor on his own when he spotted Albus making his way over to him. </p><p>“AAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!” James cheered as he met his brother halfway. He swung his arm around his little brother. “AL, AL ALLYYYYY,” he sang, disconnecting himself from Albus to sit down. He dramatically patted the seat next to him. “Sit down, Ally- Albie – oops, I can’t call you that, can I? That’s a Scorpius-only nickname.” </p><p>Albus rolled his eyes as he sat next to James and James threw his arm around him again, ruffling his messy black hair.  </p><p>“Had a few too many, James?” Albus asked, amused. </p><p>“What? Noooooo,” and then he grinned, “maybe. You know, Al, Albie, Albus, I really like your name. I know you -” he booped Albus’ nose – “don’t like it, but I do. And do you want to know why?” </p><p>“Why?” Albus asked with a grin just as Lily joined them, sitting on the floor in front of them. </p><p>“Because it’s your name and you wouldn’t be <em>Albus</em> without it, so that’s why I love it. Because I,” James kissed his cheek, “love,” another kiss, “you.” </p><p>“I love you too, James,” Albus replied as he wrestled James off of him, causing Lily to burst out into laughter. </p><p>“LILS!” </p><p>“Oh no, don’t start with why you love me,” Lily said through giggles. </p><p>“But I’m overflowing with love. You know, I think mum and dad would be proud of us right now and-” James interrupted himself by gasping loudly, then started laughing. “Okay, no one is allowed to tell mum and dad that I allowed Lily to come to a party, because guess who would get muuurrdddeeerrrreedd,” he sang, causing himself to laugh again. </p><p>“Oh please,” Lily said, smacking his knee. “As though mum and dad could murder their golden child.” </p><p>“I always thought that was you,” James replied. </p><p>“Well, at least there’s no qualms as to whether it’s me or not,” Albus joked, but even in his state of intoxication, James could hear the underlying hurt. “Anyway,” Albus said, standing up. “I came to say goodnight, I have to get back, make sure Scor’s okay.” Albus leaned down and pressed a kiss to the crown of Lily’s head and then hugged James goodbye before making a quick exit. </p><p>Lily waved at him even though Albus never turned around, then jumped up on the sofa next to James. Her glitter eye shadow had smudged slightly and curly strands were falling from her space buns, and she was smiling just like his little sister always did. </p><p>“How’s things with Jessica?” Lily asked, half-sitting on James’ lap. </p><p>James smiled. “Things are going well,” he replied. </p><p>“Told her you love her yet?” </p><p>James felt the familiar pang in his heart, the pang that always surfaced whenever he got to <em>this</em> stage in a relationship, the stage where he was in love but they weren’t. He thought perhaps he should be used to it by now, he fell in love far too easily and no one ever reciprocated quite so fast. But James had taken Albus’ advice this time, he hadn’t jumped the gun, he’d waited. He and Jessica have been together just over a month, he thought perhaps that was enough time. </p><p>But, maybe he was wrong. </p><p>“I did, earlier,” he mumbled. </p><p>Lily looked at him, the smile on her face fading to be more serious. “James, have you ever thought that maybe you’re not truly in love?” </p><p>“What do you mean?” </p><p>“The way mum and dad look at each other or the way Albus and Scorpius look at each other, with their bambi doe-eyes, I’ve never seen that look on your face. I’ve seen your infatuation and admiration, but I could never describe that as love.” </p><p>“That’s ridiculous, Lily,” James said, the words cutting through him like a knife. “I <em>know</em> how I feel, okay?” He snapped. </p><p>“James, I-” </p><p>“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Lily, you’re just a kid.” </p><p>Lily stared at him for a while before huffing and standing up. “We’re all just kids, we’re all trying our best, and you shouldn’t use that against any of us, Mr Perfect.” </p><p>And with that, Lily walked off, taking the stairs two at time up to the third years dorm and James sat back and huffed, regretting talking to his sister like that. Because he couldn’t have been more wrong, he had no idea how he felt. His heart was a mess of emotions, a splatter of paint on wall with no purpose. When it came to love, James never had a handle on things. It didn’t matter what type of love: platonic, romantic, unconditionally, he could never truly express how he felt. </p><p>It’s hard to always mess up on something that means the absolute most to him.  </p><p>“Why the long face?” A voice sounded and James turned to see Sean joining him on the sofa. His frown turned upside down as he shrugged. </p><p>“Family stuff,” he said vaguely, waving his hands in the air. </p><p>Sean’s gaze followed his hands before landing back on James. “You played really well today, you should be proud of your team.” </p><p>At this, James’ smile grew. “I am. We had some qualms, but we’re starting to feel like a proper team now.” </p><p>“You guys look like one too.” </p><p>They shared a smile, a silence washing over them. James stared at the bottom of his drink, wishing it was both empty and full at the same time. He knew he should quit and retreat to bed, but there was an overwhelming urge to keep going until he passes out. Before his final year, he remembered his dad pulling him aside and talking to him about alcohol and parties, warning him not to drink too much because it’s the worst kind of sick. </p><p>James learned that the hard way two weeks into the year. </p><p>“Okay,” Sean said, kicking James’ foot with his own slightly. “What’s really wrong? I don’t think I’ve ever seen James Sirius Potter be this quiet before.” </p><p>James laughed slightly at the joke, but his heart felt heavy. “That’s the problem.” </p><p>“What is?” </p><p>“James Sirius Potter.” </p><p>“Your name?” Sean furrowed his brows, looking unfairly cute in James’ opinion. </p><p>“The perception of my name,” James said. “People hear my name and they instantly see the boy that has grown up in the public eye. Like, take Albus for example, people hear his name and instantly think of the moody, disappointment, Slytherin son of the Chosen One. Then they hear James, and they think perfect, Gryffindor, breaker of hearts and a player, but I’m not any of those. Except the Gryffindor part,” James pursed his lips. </p><p>“So, you would rather be a disappointment?” Sean asked, furrowing his brows further. </p><p>“Not exactly, it’s just, when you’re ‘perfect’, even to your siblings, there’s no room for disappointment, and I can’t mess up because the consequences are…” James trailed off, reaching for the word but not being able to find it. </p><p>“Your family love you, no matter what, you know that, right? The way you are with your siblings and even your brothers boyfriend, it’s heart warming to watch.” Sean reached over and placed a hand on James’ forearm. </p><p>“And I love them. I know how I feel is stupid, that others have it so much worse, like Albus-” </p><p>“It’s not stupid if it’s how you feel, James,” Sean interrupted. Sean’s hand moved from his forearm down to his hand, tangling their fingers together. It was warm and comforting, somehow different to holding Jessica’s hand.  </p><p>But it also somehow felt wrong, it somehow felt like cheating even though it was completely innocent. James smiled at him briefly before untangling their hands. </p><p>“Thank you,” he said. James slapped his knees and stood. “Drink?” </p><p>“Thought you’d never ask.” </p><p>The two boys were the last ones up, talking shit until two in the morning, barely tasting their drinks by the end. James learned a lot about himself that night, but most importantly, he learned that there was someone who would listen to him even when his feelings seemed minor compared to the rest of the world. But James couldn’t help but feel guilty, that he was somehow emotionally cheating on his girlfriend. </p><p>He stumbled to bed riddled with guilt and lay awake for hours, wishing his heart was simple because he wasn’t sure how more times he could play himself with his own complicated feelings.  </p><p>
  <em>“Do you think you can love two people at the same time?” He’d asked Albus weeks before. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I do,” he replied. </em>
</p><p>And maybe he did, and James had absolutely no idea what to do, knowing that he’ll have to hurt someone in the process. Knowing he’ll have to break his own heart at the same time too. </p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Again, thank you to Nicole for drawing for this chapter.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. remember this moment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Very sorry I forgot to update yesterday, things are a little crazy right now and I don't even know which day is which! But better late than never :) Hope you enjoy this chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>James did what all teenagers did best: tried to ignore his problems until they went away. Besides, James had bigger problems than the current battle of his heart: his hair. He knew it was a bad idea to agree to a bet, but in his defence, he never expected to lose. Ohau may have only lost to Ilvermorny (meaning Hogwarts were taking on Ilvermorny in the final two weeks from now) by ten points, but James lost the bet to Sasha by forty, meaning he was now sat in the Prefects bathroom with a towel around his shoulders and his knee shaking uncontrollably.</p><p>“Is there any way I can get out of this?” James asked.</p><p>Sasha grinned. “We signed our names, no way,” she replied whilst Sean laughed. James sent him his best look of evil.</p><p>James reached forward in his chair and snatched the product from Freddie. “Are we even sure it’s safe? We’re using hair dye from your dad’s shop,” James admonished.</p><p>“It’s safe,” Freddie assured, snatching it back as James was about to read the label. “I asked Uncle Ron and he assured me that after a week, your hair should be returned to its natural voluminous shade of auburn.”</p><p>“A week?” James asked. “Does this mean it’ll be back in time for the spring solstice ball?”</p><p>“Why? Worried your girlfriend won’t go with you otherwise?” Sean said, a hint of teasing in his tone that just about hid the jealously. Or maybe it wasn’t jealousy; James wasn’t exactly sure where he stood with Sean. They were friends, they laughed and joked and yeah, he made his heart flutter, but he wasn’t sure Sean felt the same way about him.</p><p>“I haven’t actually asked her yet.”</p><p>“Okay,” Zac said, “let’s not let James spiral down the rabbit hole of love once again, let’s get dyeinnngggg,” he sang, holding out his hand for Freddie to pass the bottle to him.</p><p>James seemed to hold his breath the entire time that Zac applied the dye to his hair (he tried to ask Nelly, but she said she’d be just as useless, then he tried asking Sasha, but she said having someone who knows how to would take the fun out of it). James didn’t think it’d be that hard, as long as Zac doesn’t miss any strands of hair.</p><p>It seemed to take ages, every second being counted on the clock hung above the door. But it was the waiting part after the dye had been applied that seemed to take even longer. James had to sit there and watch his friends slowly lose themselves as James’ hair got lighter and lighter by the minute. He could finally release his breath as the timer ran out and he was allowed to go and wash the dye off.</p><p>Once his hair was thoroughly rinsed, Zac sat him back in the chair to dry it with a spell from his wand, half styling James’ hair for him (which thankfully wasn’t as untameable as his little brothers). An unbearable amount of time later, Zac finally produced a mirror.</p><p>“Are you ready?” He asked.</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“It doesn’t look <em>that</em> bad,” Sasha tried, but Sean was hiding his smile behind his hand.</p><p>“I think it rather suits you,” Freddie said, “and they do say blonde’s have more fun.”</p><p>“Just give me the mirror,” James said, snatching it from Zac’s hand.</p><p>It took all the strength inside of him not to scream. Then it took all the strength inside of him not to cry. It was just a week, just one week he would have to suffer with blond hair, which due to the redness in his usually brown hair, meant the colour had taken to a more strawberry blond than what the box had promised. James bit down on his bottom lip and sighed.</p><p>“Just one week,” he affirmed</p><p>“Jessica is going to kill you,” Zac provided.</p><p>“Well,” Sasha said, smiling as she stood and walked over to him. She ran a hand through his hair before scrunching her nose. “It was pleasure to win against you, James Potter. Can I get a picture to commemorate the moment?”</p><p>He was forced into a picture against his own will. But, then, maybe it didn’t look as bad as he thought. James left his friends in the Prefects bathroom to head to his dorm in order to change for Quidditch, shoving his Gryffindor hat on his head to avoid too many eyes. Though that wouldn’t last very long. He changed quickly and grabbed his broom and made his way through the castle as quickly as possible, if only to avoid as many people as he could.</p><p>He had stupidly chosen his training robes that didn’t have a hood, so James was forced to walk exposed throughout the castle. But, his ego was boosted when most people complimented him or sent a smile his way. It made him feel like, perhaps, it didn’t look so terrible after all. Until he rounded a corner and bumped into Albus and Scorpius, the latter who let out a startled screech at the sight of him, followed by a high-pitched, ‘blimey!’.</p><p>James rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t look that bad, does it?”</p><p>He missed Albus nodding his head as he was watching Scorpius observe him with wide eyes. “Well, I just wasn’t expecting it…” he trailed off as he tilted his head to one side. “I suppose it’s-” he reached forward and picked at a few strands before pulling his hand away. “It’s bright. Well, not as bright as mine and the red in your hair has turned it almost ginger-y, you really shouldn’t have put a blond straight on top of your natural hair if you wanted it to go proper blond but-”</p><p>“Since when were you an expert in dyeing hair?” James asked, wondering if he should have asked Scorpius to dye it for him.</p><p>“I’m not,” he replied. “I just-”</p><p>“Secretly dye your own hair?”</p><p>Scorpius took an offended step backwards. “Albus, I’m afraid I can no longer be friends with your brother after he made such a rude remark about my hair, I am terribly sorry if this is an inconvenience for you,” he said, turning to Albus.</p><p>“No, my love, no inconvenience at all,” he dramatically stroked Scorpius’ cheek before turning to James. “James, I’m sorry, we can no longer be siblings.”</p><p>James looked between the two of them and rolled his eyes. “What was in your morning coffee?”</p><p>“I don’t drink coffee,” Scorpius said at the same time Albus replied, “drugs.”</p><p>“Caffeine is a drug, my young brother,” James said, winking at him.</p><p>“I prefer the harder stuff,” Albus shrugged. Scorpius was smiling so widely that James was sure he was almost at bursting point. “But you two athletes wouldn’t know about that now, would you? Run along to practice now, don’t let me hold you back,” he winked at the two of them.</p><p>“You’re a strange one, Albus,” James remarked, patting him on the shoulder. “C’mon, baby Malfoy.”</p><p>“I’ll catch up, I have to ask Albus something first,” he said, allowing James to go on ahead.</p><p>James continued his walk down to the Quidditch grounds, being one of the first out of his team members there. He sat at on the bench and pulled a piece of parchment and a quill from his bag.</p><p>He had thought long and hard about how to ask Jessica to the spring solstice ball with him – now only a week away – but all his ideas fell short. In the past, he’d been rejected for making grand gestures, people thinking he’s too full on, so he didn’t want to push Jessica too far. Especially since her patience on him was wearing thin. Though after yesterdays win for her, she seemed a little bit more enthusiastic, so James was simply blaming the stress for bringing her down.</p><p>Nelly had told him that it was no excuse, but James knew what she was going through and admitted they may have both been the problem, but Nelly refused to listen to reason. Either way, James was on track to getting his girlfriend back properly, and he believed the perfect way to ask her was a simple gesture, a kind one that would make her heart flutter.</p><p>So, James wrote a note on parchment simply saying: <em>Jessica, I would very much like it if you would kindly agree to attend the spring solstice ball with me next week? James. </em>James then crafted the parchment into a dove – not only the bird of love, but also Jessica’s Patronus. He remembered a conversation they had about it a few weeks after getting together, how James had never cast one yet, but how she had done it weeks before coming to England, with her Patronus being a dove. He cast a spell on the parchment dove that meant it would fly directly to her, where she would open it and hopefully, she would reply with a yes.</p><p>Hopefully.</p><p>He had just sent the bird off when Rose and Yann entered and Rose burst into laughter at the sight of James’ hair. “Freddie told me, but I still didn’t know what to expect.”</p><p>“I think it rather suits him,” Yann complimented, and James smiled.</p><p>“Thank you, Yann.”</p><p>Yann smiled at him kindly as he nudged Rose in the side. Rose coughed a few times then nodded, spitting out a half-hearted compliment. At least he could rely on his family to be honest with him. And at least it would only be lasting a week. James pulled his Quidditch hat on quickly to hide the blond hair.</p><p>The rest of the team piled in eventually and dumped their bags. James couldn’t help but notice Scorpius wasn’t as lively as he had been mere minutes earlier when James had bumped into him with Albus, though he refrained from asking him at that moment.</p><p>The team took to the skies. With only two weeks till the final and the moment that would decide which school was the champion of the International Schools Quidditch Tournament, every second on the pitch was imperative. James made sure his team flew perfectly at every practice because if there was room for mistake in practice, then there was room for mistake in a match too.</p><p>Though he had to admit he found himself a little distracted halfway through when he caught a sight of blonde hair on the stands waving at him enthusiastically. James stumbled on his broom a little, missing the quaffle completely as he tried to catch it. Rose flew over and told him to get rid of her – because they couldn’t have the opposing team intruding on practice – and flew to retrieve the quaffle James had missed.</p><p>James flew over to Jessica and touched down in the stands, graciously accepting the hug from her.</p><p>“Yes! James, I would love to go to the ball with you! I was going to respond with a letter myself, but I wanted to come find you in person,” she leaned up and pressed a passionate kiss to his lips. “This was such a sweet way of asking too! You’re a great listener.”</p><p>“You mean it? You want to go with me?”</p><p>“Of course! I’ve been waiting for you to ask me, I was beginning to get worried you never would,” she fake pouted, before the grin took over and she hugged him again.</p><p>“Babe, of course I was going to ask you,” he replied, losing most the words to her hair.</p><p>“Oh, one thing,” she pulled away, the grin fading. “Rumour has it you’ve dyed your hair blond and so help me; I hope it’s just a rumour.”</p><p>James grimaced. “Not just a rumour-” Jessica groaned – “<em>but</em>, it’ll be back to its normal colour by the ball, I promise!”</p><p>“It better be,” she scolded. James saw her eyes flick behind him at the pitch – or more importantly, his team – and stepped in front of her.</p><p>“It will be. Now, I should get back to practice,” he said, a hint for her to leave the stands.</p><p>“Right, of course, I don’t want to intrude or anything,” she smiled at him and hugged him one last time. She then kissed his cheek and took one last look out at the team before smiling and taking off down the stairs, leaving James with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. One that was quickly forgotten once practice got back on track.</p><p>Even after practice had finished, James stayed on the pitch practicing out of guilt for getting distracted so close to the final. The cup was in his hands, he was so close to winning, so close to getting a scholarship, he couldn’t afford any distractions right now. So, he worked himself harder than he had ever worked in his life – even harder than he had to make the Gryffindor team in the first place.</p><p>James once feared he would be sorted into Slytherin, if only for his ambition, but James soon realised that his ambition was more determination – a much more Gryffindor trait. He couldn’t be more Gryffindor even if he tried, or so Albus had told him one time. The moment he was sorted into Gryffindor was one of the most relieving moments of his life. It seemed crazy how one kid could be so worried about a sorting, purely based on how his family talked about Slytherin. Then Albus and Molly came along and were sorted into Slytherin in the same year. The Slytherin shit-talk pretty much stopped after that.</p><p>But what was once a family full of Gryffindors, lion-hearted to the bone, was now a family full of different houses. There was a Weasley cousin in every house, and it meant that house unity had become a big thing. It wasn’t uncommon to see Lily eating at the Hufflepuff table with Hugo, or Louis eating with Molly at Slytherin. But beyond that, the houses were uniting beyond the Weasley family. It was evolving, becoming less like a competition and more like a celebration of differences – the way it should always have been.</p><p>James flew around the stadium, seeing the different banners of the different houses on each stand and smiled to himself. Even this Hogwarts team had a member from each house on it: three Gryffindors, two Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin. An unlikely group of people who had truly pushed aside their differences and animosities towards each other and created a team, one that James was absolutely certain would bring home the trophy for Hogwarts.</p><p>As he touched down to the ground, he could almost hear the victory. He could almost hear the stands going crazy, shouting his name over and over, cheering for Hogwarts and their win. James smiled to himself all the way to the changing rooms, but the smile dropped when he saw Scorpius sat in the corner with his legs pulled to his chest. His hair was wet and he was in a fresh set of clothes, which meant he’d taken the time to shower, even though he never showered here because he didn’t like it.</p><p>“Scorpius?” James asked, an uneasy feeling in his stomach. The euphoria from the pitch was easily replaced with hurt seeing a friend of his in clear distress. He stepped closer, noticing Scorpius’ shoulders shaking with silent tears.</p><p>“I didn’t think you’d be finished yet,” Scorpius said, almost like he was never meant to be caught mid-breakdown.</p><p>“I’ve been out there a whole hour,” James explained.</p><p>“It’s been that long already?” He whispered, more to himself than James. James set his broomstick down and crouched next to Scorpius, refraining from placing a hand on his shoulder knowing how the other boy is with touch.</p><p>“Do you want to talk?”</p><p>“I don’t think I can talk to you about it,” he mumbled, aggressively wiping at his face with his sleeves, but more tears seemed to fall against his will.</p><p>James sighed and sat back, knowing he shouldn’t push it but also knowing that if Scorpius couldn’t turn to him, Albus or Lily, then he had no one. And if he was here, it meant Albus wasn’t an option: or rather, Albus might have been the problem. “Is this about Albus?”</p><p>Scorpius slowly nodded and James remained silent, allowing him to gather his thoughts. He never moved, letting him know with his actions that he could always talk to him, no matter what. Eventually, Scorpius spoke.</p><p>“I asked him to the ball, he said he doesn’t want to go with me,” he explained briefly.</p><p>“He doesn’t want to go, or specifically that he doesn’t want to go with <em>you?</em>”</p><p>Scorpius hung his head. “That he doesn’t want to go, but doesn’t that mean, by extension, he doesn’t want to go with me either?”</p><p>“Not necessarily,” James placed a hand on Scorpius’ shoulder. “I think this may be something you’re over thinking.”</p><p>Scorpius opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again. He repeated this a few times before sighing and rubbing at his wet cheeks again. “But I don’t blame him!” he exploded, his voice louder than intended. “I wouldn’t want to go with me either. I don’t see what he sees in me, he’s so kind and loving and caring and beautiful and I’m just ordinary. I’m ordinary and there’s this scary dark pit buried inside of me and I’m anxious and can barely go through a day without forgetting how to breathe and I just don’t <em>get</em> why he’d want to be around me because even <em>I </em>don’t want to be around me.”</p><p>Scorpius barely took a breath between words, his chest tightening. James rubbed his back and shuffled closer, letting the presence of a person hopefully be some comfort.</p><p>“I don’t know what force was in power but the world did something right when it brought you into Albus’ life,” James said, looking up at him.</p><p>Scorpius wiped at his tears with the sleeve of his cardigan and sniffled a few more times. He was silent for a painfully long time, clearly rethinking his own words whilst taking James’ into account. When he finally spoke, his voice was a little shaky. “When I needed a friend more than ever before, the world granted me Albus. It’s never been very kind to me, but I’ll forgive the world for being cruel knowing that it brought Albus to me.”</p><p>“You guys were meant to be together, no matter which way that means,” James assured.</p><p>“So, you think we’ll be okay?”</p><p>James took his glasses off to briefly rub his eyes before returning them to his face. “I think you’ll figure it out. The problem with you, Scorpius, is that your halo is a blinding bright light to everyone but yourself, you need to believe in yourself more.”</p><p>“I think that halo is dimmer to more people than you might think.”</p><p>James held his hands up and counted off a finger for each name. “Not for me, not for Lily, not for your dad or your mum, not for my mum and certainly not for Albus.”</p><p>“But the thing is you, Albus, my dad, all of you can escape. I know I’m annoying and too much and I over think everything and I know being around me can be exhausting, but can you imagine how that feels for me? How suffocating it is living in my own mind because I’m stuck with me.”</p><p>“I know how it feels and don’t say what I know you’re going to say next.”</p><p>“What’s that?” Scorpius asked, looking up at him with big doe-eyes, blinking away the last of his tears that made his eyes shine brighter than normal.</p><p>“That I’m James Sirius Potter and I’m perfect and have no problems or flaws.”</p><p>“I wouldn’t say that because I wouldn’t lie to you. I know what your problems are: it’s love. You love so hard and fiercely, but you struggle with showing it, and having something that means so much to you be so much of a struggle must be really hard.”</p><p>“How did you know that?”</p><p>Scorpius half-smiled. “I listen, I watch, I observe. It’s what I learned to do growing up: to be perceptive.”</p><p>The door opened, interrupting the two boys as they both looked up to see the intruder. It was Albus, strands of messy black hair sticking out beneath his beanie. He looked awkward stepping into the changing rooms, like he knew he was stepping into uncharted territory.</p><p>“There you are,” he mumbled, coming closer. “I was getting worried, I thought practice finished ages ago.”</p><p>“It did,” Scorpius said, trying – but failing – to hide his sniffles.</p><p>Albus dropped in front of Scorpius on his knees, placing his hands on Scorpius’ knees. “I’m sorry, I’ve been thinking about it and I would really like to go with you to the ball. I shouldn’t have no like that, or at all, I guess I just got worried about it all, but I want to go. With you.</p><p>Scorpius smiled slightly. “Really? Because I don’t want you to do this purely for me.”</p><p>“Everything I do is for you. Your happiness is my happiness and maybe it could be fun because it’s you and me, right? That’s what we decided, me and you against the world?”</p><p>“Me and you against the world,” Scorpius agreed, placing his hands over Albus’.</p><p>James felt like he was intruding on an intimate moment, a moment that should have been shared between the two of them. So, James stood and headed for the showers, feeling proud of his brother and Scorpius for working this out between them. When he emerged from the shower, the two boys were gone and James got changed and sought out Jessica, feeling the need to talk to her and remind her that he loves her.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Another lovely drawing of blond!James from Nicole :)<br/>See you Monday!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. bring on all the pretenders</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>By some miracle, James’ hair had returned to its regular shade of auburn the morning of the spring solstice ball, meaning he would be heading to the gala as James; the James everyone knew. He had to admit, having blond hair was a fun experience, but not one he’d ever go through again. He was happy to be back to being himself, and he couldn’t stop smiling as he styled his hair in the bathroom mirror as he was getting ready for the night of his life.</p><p>Since it was announced, the ball had been talk of the school. Teachers were hosting dance lessons, students were discussing the potential band the school had hired, as well as how the hall would be decorated and what exactly they were going to wear. Lily designed her own dress with the help of Rose and even a little bit from Scorpius. James was yet to see it, but if he knew his sister, he knew she would look beautiful; just like their mum.</p><p>James and Albus had gone robe shopping together the previous day with a nice amount of spending money their parents had graciously granted them. It had been a long day, so long that James’ feet were beginning to hurt. Neither of them could settle on a shade; James wanted something different from the usual Gryffindor red he opted for, and Albus wanted to desperately impress Scorpius, which meant being a little bit more out there than his usual Slytherin green.</p><p>Eventually, James settled on a set of deep purple suede dress robes that had to be tailored slightly in order to fit, and Albus settled on a cobalt blue, the darker shade complimenting his darker hair colour. They even splashed on a pair of cufflinks, Albus’ that were in the shape of the <em>Scorpius</em> constellation, and James’ that were shaped like a lion’s head – he had to still represent his house in some way. By the time they returned to the castle, they were knackered yet pleased with their purchases and as James pulled on his new dress robes, he stood by his decision.</p><p>Dress robes on, hair styled and smelling fresh, James strolled down to the Gryffindor common room with a cocky smirk, watching even Zac’s mouth drop to the floor.</p><p>“Well, James, you brought your A game. I think it’s really unfair that you’re this good looking, yet you’re not the biggest prick around,” Zac complimented… or James at least <em>thought</em> it was a compliment.</p><p>“Don’t doubt your self-worth, Zachary. Who are you going with anyway?”</p><p>“Freddie and I are swinging solo,” he whistled as he cut his hand through the hair.</p><p>“Speak of the devil,” James said and Freddie popped up in a white set of dress robes that complimented his darker skin rather nicely. James told them he’d meet them all down at the ball as he was picking Jessica up from the Hufflepuff dorms and waved his friends goodbye as Lily and her friends all descended the stairs.</p><p>Lily’s dress was beautiful. It was a beautiful light blue that traced up to her neck, the sleeves a delicate lace with lilies sewn down her arms. The dress almost reached the floor, just about showing her matching pair of shoes that James was surprised she could walk in. Her hair was braided delicately into two space buns, a few strands of hair curled around her face. James smiled at his sister, a proud feeling enveloping his heart.</p><p>“Lils, you look beautiful,” he complimented as she reached him, throwing her arms around him.</p><p>“Do you like it?” She asked, beaming, clearly proud of herself and her work.</p><p>“It’s incredible, you’re a work of art Lily Luna Potter.”</p><p>She smiled widely at him. “This is nice, too. I love the purple, it really suits you and it’s a nice change from your usual.”</p><p>“Thank you,” James said, sincerely.</p><p>“Anyway, see you there, Jamie!” She said as she walked away, linking arms with her best friend, Piper. James left the common room just after them and made his way down to the Hufflepuff common room. He’d told Jessica he’d pick her up and walk her there so they could make an entrance together. As he travelled down the many moving staircases, past the Great Hall level where many students were beginning to arrive, his heart began thumping loudly in his chest.</p><p>Maybe he shouldn’t have been nervous, but a date to a ball felt more real than anything, it felt almost permanent. And James would really like it if Jessica did become a permanent fixture in his life. Sure, they had the whole problem with long distance, but maybe that wouldn’t be so bad if they were both willing to commit to that. And there was still letters and after they both graduated, they would be earning money to see each other often.</p><p>Once outside the Hufflepuff common room, James conjured a single red rose and leaned against the back wall, trying to look like he’d been there a while. When Jessica emerged in a one-shouldered scarlet dress, his breath caught in his throat. She looked absolutely stunning; her hair pulled into an elegant high ponytail that hung over her bare shoulder. She smiled as she saw him and took the rose graciously. She thanked him with a kiss on the cheek and put the rose in her ponytail.</p><p>“You look incredible,” James complimented as he held his arm out for her to take.</p><p>“Thank you,” she giggled, giving his cheek another kiss.</p><p>The Great Hall was warm when they arrived, emitting a golden glow from the enchanted ceiling where it was charmed to show the blue skies and the golden sun, birds flying elegantly through the sky, creating a beautiful springs day. James didn’t recognise the song playing and he doubted he’d remember it in days to come due to his distractions, students were dressed to the nines, Houses forgotten as they all interacted with each other.</p><p>James caught his friends around a round table decorated with beautiful flowers and pulled Jessica in their direction. It wasn’t long, however, until they all took to the dance floor, dancing to music they’d forget and laughing about jokes that wouldn’t be funny in the morning. They were the kings and the queens, on top of the world, holding these days – the best days of their lives – in the warmest parts of their hearts.</p><p>James was on an all-time high, only for it to come crashing down moments later.</p><p>“James!” Sean called, waving him over and off the dance floor. James shrugged at Jessica and the two made their way over to him. And even though Sean called him, he turned to Jessica when they arrived. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, you know that right?”</p><p>“What are you talking about?” Jessica asked, looking at James with a confused look before back at Sean.</p><p>“Are you done using him yet? Because that’s what you’ve been doing, haven’t you?” Sean asked, his cheeks flushed with anger.</p><p>“Sean, don’t be ridiculous,” James said, trying to defend his girlfriend without really knowing anything. </p><p>“I’ve just been told,” Sean began, “that Jessica got close to you to create a distraction for you, to create tension on your team and to be able to spy on your practices-”</p><p>“Sean, you don’t know anything!” James shouted.</p><p>“-but it didn’t work, did it? Hogwarts still made it to the final, and I hope next week they crush you,” He continued, ignoring James.</p><p>“This is ridiculous.”</p><p>“Tell him,” Sean said, looking Jessica directly in the eye and waving his hands towards James. “Tell him how this was all a ploy to win the cup.”</p><p>James stepped away from Jessica and looked between the two of them.</p><p>“James-”</p><p>“Is it true?” He interrupted.</p><p>“Jamie-”</p><p>“Is it true?”</p><p>Jessica sighed, looking between them both. “Yes.”</p><p>“So, this, all of this, it means nothing to you?”</p><p>“It’s not like that!”</p><p>“Please just tell me straight, did I mean anything to you?”</p><p>Jessica closed her mouth and searched for something to say. But it was second too long. Her silence spoke more words than her actual words ever could. James stepped a few more steps away from both of them, trying to work back the tears that were brewing in his eyes. He couldn’t cry, not here, despite how much he wanted to. He couldn’t cry at all, Gryffindors don’t cry. Not this Gryffindor anyway.</p><p>“James,” Jessica pleaded but he held his hand up.</p><p>“I have to go,” he managed before turning away from both of them. James just about made it into the Entrance Hall when he could no longer hold the tears back.</p><p>He walked down the hall until his knees gave way and he crashed to the floor, curling up with his back against the wall and hugging his knees. It’s funny, he thought, he’d found so many people in this position the past few weeks and never did he think he’d end up just like them. He wondered if they felt as alone as he did in this moment, like no one would come to his aid.</p><p>He must be a difficult person to love, that seemed like the only explanation. Maybe, in some way, he was broken. Was it possible for no one to fall in love with him? Was it possible for him to fall so easily, yet no one reciprocate in the same way? Maybe he was destined to be alone forever, it sure felt that way.</p><p>Because on the outside, he didn’t have any problems. Little did anyone know that his greatest battle was the battle of his heart. He was desperate to be loved and adored, desperate to find someone and treat them the way they deserve to be treated. Desperate to be treated the way he thinks he deserves to be treated. James makes mistakes, he knows that, and sometimes he likes making jokes and winding people up, but his heart was a good one. Or, so he thought. Maybe it wasn’t so good, maybe that’s what made him so difficult to love.</p><p>To everyone else, James was happy and perfect, but he felt far from it. Sometimes he just wished someone would scream in his face and make him tell them what’s wrong, to insist on listening to every doubt and worry he had. But he didn’t have anyone around who would do that because no one paid attention long enough to check on him. Because they all assumed he was fine. Because he’s James, and James always is fine. He wondered when the world was going to start seeing him for the boy he truly is, or at least just one person who will ask him what’s wrong and push him when he brushed it off as ‘just fine’.</p><p>“There you are,” came the voice of his little brother. James quickly sat up and wiped at his tears, unwilling to let Albus see he was crying.</p><p>“Here I am,” he laughed, trying to force as much joy into his tone as possible.</p><p>Albus shuffled on his feet a little, tugging at the sleeves of his dress robes and trying to hide behind his messy curls that could never be tamed. He hesitated for a brief moment before stepping a few steps towards James and dropping beside him.</p><p>“Do you wanna talk about it?”</p><p>“Not really,” James looked at him and softened. “Shouldn’t you be dancing with your boyfriend?”</p><p>Albus smiled at him. “It seems Scorpius and I are on damage control, he’s with Lily, her so-called best friend just kissed the guy she has a crush on,” he explained. But Albus wasn’t going to let him get away with changing the subject that easily. “Are you really okay, Jamie?”</p><p>The tears came back at full force, pouring down his cheeks. It seemed Gryffindors <em>do</em> cry. That simple question seemed to set off a waterfall, breaking whatever dam had been holding them back. “I think I’m broken,” he said between sobs, and collapsed into the open arms of his brother.</p><p>Albus held him, rubbing his back, telling him there was no way he was broken, except maybe his heart. But Albus didn’t understand, Albus would never. Albus was in a happy and loving relationship with someone who would give up the world for him. Albus got lucky. And maybe James was right in assuming he’d never be as lucky as Albus in finding someone who loved him for him, for all his flaws and quirks.</p><p>“You’re not broken,” Albus repeated just as they pulled away, holding James’ cheeks so he was sure to look him in the eye.</p><p>“No one will ever love me for who I am, and therefore I must be broken.”</p><p>“Jamie, I’m your brother and therefore I am obliged to tell you nothing but the truth, you are <em>not</em> broken. You just haven’t found the right person yet and that is okay. There is no time limit on finding love, take your time and the right person will come along.”</p><p>“She used me,” he mumbled. “She used me, she acted like she liked me and then she betrayed everything all for a fucking game of Quidditch!” James said; sitting up, anger replacing his hurt. “And Sean had no right to tell me any of this either, he should have pulled her aside and spoke to her privately,” James said, feeling stupid as he was still protecting the person who used him.</p><p>“Do you want my opinion?” Albus asked. James nodded. “Now, bear in mind I don’t know everything, but to me, it seems like Sean did it out of jealously.”</p><p>“That only makes it worse because he was only acting for himself, he didn’t even take my feelings into consideration,” James replied, shrinking back. Albus shuffled forward and placed a hand on his knee.</p><p>“Look, girlfriends, boyfriends, they come and go, but family is for life. So, dry your eyes, let’s go back in there and dance and drink until we forget all about her, okay?”</p><p>James shook his head, “I don’t really feel like dancing right now,” he sulked. “And there’s no alcohol in the punch.”</p><p>Albus rolled his eyes. “We don’t need alcohol, just family, friends and a good time.” Albus stood and held his hand out to James. He looked at it for a few moments, wanting nothing more than to decline his offer and head to bed early, but James was not one for disappointing people and he knew Albus would feel disheartened if James were to decline. So, he took his hand and allowed his little brother to pull him up.</p><p>They embraced in a quick hug before Albus held out his hand again, James took it and the two boys walked back into the belly of the beast. He caught a brief glance at Jessica in the corner with her friends who looked back with a blank expression. He knew that he felt more for her than she did for him, but he’d thought that was because James moved quickly and others never matched his pace. He didn’t know it was because her heart was as cold as snow.</p><p>James didn’t understand how she could be with him, hug him, <em>kiss</em> him for nearly two months and feel nothing. If someone opened and held a door for James, he was in love them for three weeks. He couldn’t imagine playing with someone like that, hurting someone all for the sake of a trophy. She saw the best and worst parts of him and she stuck around and now it was all a lie. He’s never met anyone as cold as her.</p><p>It was a rainy ending to what James thought was a perfect relationship.</p><p>Maybe James had to redefine the word ‘perfect’. No one was perfect, nothing was perfect. Even people with halo’s above their head, like she used to have, have their flaws. Yet, James had the nerve to adore her, James had the nerve to fall head over heels in love, all for it all to come crashing down.</p><p>Albus led him across the hall to where Scorpius and Lily were sat at a rounded table. Lily’s tears were now dry, a smile painted across her face as she looked at Scorpius – someone who has become like a brother to her. Scorpius said something that made Lily laugh and jump into a hug, resting her head on his shoulder. During the hug, Scorpius caught sight of the two brothers and waved them over.</p><p>“Not a good night for the Potters, huh?” James joked as he and Albus took a seat.</p><p>“My night’s been pretty good, actually,” Albus said, sitting beside Scorpius and wrapping an arm around his waist.</p><p>“Are you okay, James?” Scorpius asked.</p><p>James sighed, but nodded. “I will be. How about you, Lils?”</p><p>“I’m good. Scorpius reminded me of my worth and that I’m better than everyone in this room,” she shrugged.</p><p>“I- didn’t encourage that,” Scorpius inputted, raising his eyebrows at Lily.</p><p>“Okay,” Lily surrendered, throwing her hands up. “I’m better than everyone in this room, <em>except</em> Scorpius.”</p><p>“She has a point,” Albus agreed.</p><p>James looked among the three of them, watching as Scorpius’ flushed a bright red and said, “I agree, one hundred per cent.”</p><p>“Did someone smuggle something into your pumpkin juice?” Scorpius asked, causing the siblings to let out a laugh.</p><p>“Come on,” Lily said, standing up. “I want to dance and there’s no one in this room I’d rather do it with than my three brothers.”</p><p>James could have sworn he heard Scorpius let out a little squeak, but chose to ignore it as he accepted Lily’s outstretched hand. The four of them made their way over to the dance floor, music blaring in their ears as they danced together and tried to forget about the world. With his siblings, James had never felt more at home within the walls of this castle.</p><p>He loved Hogwarts, but those first two years before Albus came here always felt a little lonely no matter whom he was surrounded by. They felt lonelier when Albus eventually did arrive and only gave him the cold shoulder (though James understood why and knew he was mostly to blame). It felt better when Lily came, knowing she was so close to him and James and Lily had always been close in their childhood. But now, after a lot of time recovering their relationship, Albus had, once again, let his siblings back into his life, and because of it, Hogwarts felt a little brighter.</p><p>It was a shame that James would be leaving forever in just a few short months.</p><p>Though he wanted to forget about that. He wanted to forget about leaving Hogwarts, and therefore his siblings behind; he wanted to forget about Jessica and the heartbreak and betrayal; he wanted to forget about Sean and whatever his motives were; he wanted to forget about Quidditch and just live in the moment.</p><p>But that was difficult when he was surrounded by memories and a boy with chocolate brown eyes tapped on his shoulder.</p><p>“Can we talk?” Sean asked.</p><p>What he wanted to say was no, but he reluctantly nodded and told Albus he’d be back in a few. James followed Sean through the crowd of dancing students to a quieter part of the hall. James, pushed his glasses into his hair and folded his arms and waited for Sean to talk.</p><p>“I’m sorry about Jessica-”</p><p>“Are you?” James interrupted, pursing his lips.</p><p>“Yes, I am,” he persisted. “I didn’t want to tell you but-”</p><p>“Then why did you?” James pushed. “What did you gain from it exactly, aside from breaking my heart and exposing her in front of everyone when it all could have been done in a controlled and quiet environment?”</p><p>“I thought you deserved to know,” he defended, throwing his hands up in a response to James’ defensive tone. “Are you annoyed with me?”</p><p>“I just don’t see why you did it the way you did. You’re going back to New Zealand and Jessica back to America in a week, we would never have lasted judging by her intentions so why not just let it play out naturally and save me from some heartache and betrayal?” James was trying to keep his cool, keeping his voice low.</p><p>“This isn’t all about you!” Sean snapped.</p><p>“It’s not?”</p><p>“No!”</p><p>“Then what does this have to do with you? How does my relationship affect you at all?” James asked, raising his voice.</p><p>“Because I liked you, James!”</p><p>A silence fell between them. James knew, or suspected, but he never expected a confession and he certainly never expected it in this manner. He just thought Sean would retreat back to his corner of the world and they would both eventually forget about each other; brush it off as nothing more than a school-crush and that would be it.</p><p>“I liked you, too,” James confessed.</p><p>Sean seemed to soften, looking at him with wide eyes. James took a step back.</p><p>“But that doesn’t change anything. In fact, it only makes it worse.”</p><p>Sean shuffled awkwardly, toeing one shoe against the other, looking guilty and rightfully so. “You’re right,” he confessed. “I am sorry, James. I didn’t take your feelings into account, but I thought you liked me, I didn’t think you really liked her at all so I didn’t think it would hurt that much and I didn’t want to stand around and watch her-”</p><p>“This isn’t about you, Sean, get that into your head. It’s about me, but you know, I’m kind of glad this ended the way it did. Sometimes, seeing people’s true colours helps the moving on process a little easier. See you around,” James said before walking off and finding his siblings on the dance floor once again.</p><p>James let himself get lost to the music and the dancing and the sound of laughter from his friends and family. He made sure to hang out with his cousins he didn’t see as often, but spend an equally same amount of time with his friends and he tried to forget about his broken heart, just for the night. He danced with Nelly - who abandoned Lucas when she heard what happened - and they slowly moved to the music playing on the speakers. He knew reality would come crashing down in the morning, but for now, he lived in the moment.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Again, thank you to everyone who is reading and commenting and being supportive in general, every kudo and comment really makes my day and I am truly appreciative &lt;3<br/>Another wonderful drawing from Nicole who is still doing these drawings despite being quite ill right now and I am so thankful for her and wish her a speedy recovery &lt;3</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. got to rule the world</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is the penultimate chapter and I'm so sad it's nearly over! I truly loved writing this and getting to explore James as a character, especially in this context where I got to explore Albus and Scorpius, Lily and create a few OCs in the process! I really hope you all enjoyed it too :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The day of the final came around quicker than James would have liked. Sure, he was ready to play the most important game of this life that determined whether or not he’d ever make it professionally, but he also was terrified. It’s not like this whole entire match determined his whole entire future and thus decided whether or not James would become successful or will become a hermit and die on the street.</p><p>However, someone who was somehow more nervous than James was Scorpius, who was currently half way to a panic attack in the changing room a mere moments before they were due to go out. The rest of the team had decided to leave him, James and Yann to it, with Rose promising to get someone to go find Albus in the crowd.</p><p>“Okay,” James said, deciding to take control of the situation as Albus was taking too long. He abandoned his spot at the door and made his way over, sitting the other side of Scorpius to Yann. “We’re going to talk it out, embrace what is going on in your mind, okay?”</p><p>Scorpius was fiddling with his Seeking gloves, looking like he was trying to break them in, but he weakly nodded. His panic attack was still at bay, so James hoped he could guide him away from it.</p><p>“What’s worrying you?”</p><p>“I’m scared I’ll mess this up for you,” he admitted, biting down on his bottom lip. “This is the most important game of your life, all of the Puddlemere scouts and coach and team are here to see you perform and if they don’t like it then you lose your place on the team and I know this probably all depends on how the team play together as well as you as our captain and I don’t want to somehow mess it all up because we all know I’m not a team – or a fan – favourite-”</p><p>“Okay, breathe,” James said softly. “I don’t want you to play for me.” Scorpius looked at him with his big grey eyes, looking awfully cute and bambi-like. “Whatever happens with my spot on Puddlemere is purely down to me, not you. So, don’t play for me. Play for your dad who’s come to see you, or for Albus or even yourself.”</p><p>“But if you don’t get it…”</p><p>“Then that’s on me,” James assured, placing a hand on his shoulder. Scorpius eyes somehow got softer as he melted at James’ words. “Scorpius, you need to stop looking at me like that, you’re too cute.”</p><p>A small smile appeared on his face and his eyes got <em>wider.</em></p><p>“Stop it!” James said.</p><p>“I’m not doing anything!” He protested and James stood to step away.</p><p>“How could you possibly look that cute?” James asked and Scorpius looked at Yann, like he was asking him to defend him.</p><p>Yann only shrugged. “You are ridiculously cute,” he agreed, earning a cute confused look from Scorpius and a victory laugh from James. “Albus is a lucky lad, that’s what I say,” he patted Scorpius on the shoulder. “Right, you good?” He nodded. “Let’s go beat some Ilvermony ass, and hey, James?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“If I were to, you know, accidentally throw the quaffle at Jessica’s head, would you-”</p><p>“Pitch, now,” James warned, pointing at the door. Yann grinned at him and winked before bee lining for the door, knowing James was very close to hitting him over the head with his Chasing gloves. James held his hand out to Scorpius to pull him up, which Scorpius took gratefully. “Deep breaths, relax your shoulders, and just play. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose because we have won in our hearts already.”</p><p>Scorpius nodded and thanked him as they made their way to the pitch. Albus just about caught them and checked Scorpius was okay before giving him (another) good luck kiss and James a good luck hug and taking back off to the stands.</p><p>James’ heart was pounding inside his chest as they were announced onto the pitch, the familiar voice of his cousin filling up the area. His heart didn’t settle until they were in the air and the whistle had been sounded and James went into Game Mode, all fear and worry forgotten because he had a game to win.</p><p>Some people lose their focus when it comes to games; they were brilliant in practice but lost their head in the real thing, but not James. When it came to competing, James knew exactly where his head was, he knew exactly how to play the field and this was no different. He may have had the most important people in his life watching him with the opportunity of a lifetime resting this game, but up in the skies, that didn’t matter.</p><p>James flew better than he ever had before, determined to win this match, not for himself, but for his team. He was amazed at how far they’ve come and how they’ve pulled through and worked together as a team to get as far as they have. It was touch and go for a moment, but here they were, flying about the pitch like their lives depended on it.</p><p>It was a long match, both sides just as determined as the other to win. It seemed whenever the Seekers got close to the snitch, a bludger would come and distract them, or they would lose sight of it. The Keepers were on form too, stopping many goals before they could get anywhere near the hoop. It was a couple of hours in and Ilvermorny were up fifty points when James saw Scorpius and Jessica both speed off for the snitch on the opposite end of the pitch.</p><p>It seemed the whole stadium went silent, everyone holding their breath and just waiting to see who would emerge victorious. The other players continued their game, James keeping one eye on Scorpius as he caught the quaffle from Rose and crossed the pitch to the goal. Jessica nudged Scorpius on her broom, almost making him fall into an oncoming bludger that just narrowly missed him when he righted himself quickly. James sucked in a breath.</p><p>Scorpius held his hand out, inches ahead of Jessica, when she pulled away and crashed back into his side, causing Scorpius to stumble, lose grip on his broom and fall. James let out a giant gasp, dropping the quaffle to pull his wand out of his boot. Just as Scorpius was about to hit the floor, the crowd gasping as they watched it happen, James cast a spell and caught him inches from the ground.</p><p>When he released the spell and Scorpius landed significantly softer than he would have, James flew toward him, getting ready to call for a foul when Scorpius sat up and held the snitch in his hand, a smile on his face.</p><p>“MALFOY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH; HOGWARTS WIN THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS QUIDDITCH TOURNAMENT!” Hugo cheered. The crowds and stands went wild, erupting into cheers that deafened James. As he touched down, he smiled widely at Scorpius as he helped him up, pulling him into a hug. Within seconds, the rest of the team had joined them and crushed James and Scorpius as they all piled in for a hug, jumping and cheering. The atmosphere was euphoric and James had never felt happier. Nothing in the world would ever compare to this feeling, the feeling of winning and being on top of the world, that’s why James wanted to do this for the rest of his life.</p><p>There were reporters that came onto the pitch, photographing the team in the glory of their win, but James ignored them as he went around and thanking and congratulating each member of his team. They shared a million hugs and basked in their dream come true. Zac, Nelly and Freddie ran onto the pitch, taking James hoisting him into the air, chanting his name over and over.</p><p>“We’re proud of you, Jamie,” Zac said as they let him back onto the floor, hugging him again.</p><p>“You played great,” Nelly continued, jumping onto his back and hugging him tightly.</p><p>“Thank you, guys,” James said, sincerely.</p><p>“James,” a voice called, pulling him from his euphoria. “Remember me?”</p><p>“Mr Deverill, pleasure to see you, sir,” James greeted, letting Nelly down and walking over to him to shake his hand.</p><p>“I believe a congratulations are in order,” he said with a smile.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>“There’s someone I’d like you to meet, come with me,” he began walking off the pitch and James followed happily with a spring in his step. Even though the adrenaline was still running through his veins and the win was still fresh in his mind, James felt a little nervous of what was to come and whether or not he played well enough to make the Puddlemere team.</p><p>Mr Deverill stopped just as he got off the pitch where there was stood none other than Quidditch legend and now coach of Puddlemere United, Oliver Wood. James tried to hide his gasp and instead forced it into a smile as he held out his hand.</p><p>“Mr Wood, sir, hi, hello, I’m James,” James greeted awkwardly, getting unusually flustered around the man. He had been James’ idol for many years (he near died when his parents said they not only went to school but also played on the same team as him).</p><p>“It’s great to finally meet you, James, this feels long overdue,” he greeted, shaking his hand back.</p><p>“It does, sir,” James agreed, though he didn’t really understand why.</p><p>Oliver smiled. “That was a brilliant game,” he nodded towards the pitch. “I would have died for an opportunity like this when I was in school. Anyway, Phil here told me all about you after your first game and I knew I would have to come see what all the fuss was about, and you certainly didn’t disappoint. James Potter, this is your formal invitation to join the Puddlemere United team following your graduation from Hogwarts?”</p><p>James gaped. “Are you serious?”</p><p>“Deadly,” he confirmed. “Take some time and-”</p><p>“No time needed, yes. My answer is yes. This is all I’ve wanted, thank you so, so much for this opportunity,” he grinned. Oliver grinned back and nodded.</p><p>“My pleasure, I can’t wait to have the opportunity to coach you.”</p><p>The three of them talked some more about James’ introduction to the team, letting him know when to expect him to join the training sessions and all the details that will eventually be written down in a letter and sent to him. He shook their hands about five times throughout, overjoyed that his dream had finally come true.</p><p>Mr Deverill parted from the conversation after all the details had been ironed out and not long after, James’ mum and dad came to say hello to Oliver and wish him all the best. Oliver let James break the news, which resulted in a lot of hugs and kisses from his mum and a hug from his dad as he told him how proud he was of him. They then got talking about more stuff James didn’t really care for, itching to get back to his team and celebrate their win.</p><p>“Albus, Lily,” his mum called, spotting Albus, Lily and Scorpius just behind them. A wide smile appeared on Lily’s face as she ran over to them, embracing James in a deep hug and congratulating him on the win and the Puddlemere United contract. Scorpius and Albus came at a much slower pace, clasping onto each others’ hands like their lives depended on it. After Scorpius’ fall, James couldn’t blame them.</p><p>“Oliver,” his mum began again, “this is my youngest son, Albus, and our little firecracker, Lily,” she said fondly and she embraced Lily briefly.</p><p>“Pleasure to finally meet you both. Do you like Quidditch?” He asked and James almost laughed. Lily actually did laugh.</p><p>“Albus wouldn’t know the difference between and Snitch and Bludger if it hit him in the face,” she said fondly, going to Albus’ side and hooking her arm with his free one. “I, however, plan to make the team next year.”</p><p>“Which position?”</p><p>“Chaser, like my grandfather, my mum and my big brother,” she smiled fondly at James.</p><p>“You know,” Oliver said, “when your mum and dad first told me they were pregnant, I knew their kids would have great Quidditch skills. I say why stop at three when you can have seven and have a whole team?” James spat out his drink, unable to hide his surprise and amusement at the comment.</p><p>Luckily, their mum chimed in. “Don’t forget I come from a family of seven, I would never want to subject Albus to that kind of pain,” she joked, winking at Albus.</p><p>“I appreciate that mum, though two is painful enough,” he joked back.</p><p>“Heyy!” Lily and James said at the same time, both of them jumping Albus in a play wrestle, forcing him away from Scorpius unless he wanted to get dragged down with them. Lily jumped on Albus’ shoulders as they worked on wrestling him to the floor, telling him to surrender and they’ll let go. Albus put up a good fight, but eventually he waved his white flag and James and Lily retreated. James tried to fix Albus’ hair as he stood but Albus waved him off.</p><p>“Anyway, I should be off, it was lovely to see you all and James,” Oliver turned to him, “welcome to the team.”</p><p>“Thank you, Mr. Wood.”</p><p>Oliver nodded between them all before taking off, hugging Ginny and shaking Harry’s hand one last time.  James was pulled into yet another hug by his parents, telling him again how proud they are and James felt his heart swell. He was proud of himself, but after worrying so much about disappointing them should he not make it, James was glad he did make them proud.</p><p>“Scorpius?” Draco called as he came over. He said a quick congratulations to James before turning back to his son. “Madame Pomfrey wants to check you over quickly before the feast later,” he explained, holding his arm out.</p><p>“Dad, I’m fine,” he protested.</p><p>“Fine or not, you’re going to get checked over,” he said, his voice stern.</p><p>Scorpius rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he relented, following his dad. At the last moment, he turned and grabbed James’ arm. “Thank you,” he said, “for catching me.”</p><p>“I’ve always got your back,” James reminded, earning a smile and a nod. Scorpius left with his dad, leaving the Potter family to it. Their parents said a long goodbye, telling them they’d be there to pick them up from the train station the following day for Easter break. Once they left, the three siblings made their way back to the pitch which was now mostly deserted, aside from a few stragglers, James’ friends and the rest of the Hogwarts team.</p><p>They stayed down there for a few more minutes, basking in their win. They sat in silence and reminded themselves of the screams of the crowd, how happy they were and how joyous they felt. Eventually, they had to leave and ready themselves for the post-game feast in the Great Hall, where Hogwarts would be awarded for their win.</p><p> </p><p>#</p><p> </p><p>“Hey guys,” James said as he jogged up to the other members of his team standing outside the Great Hall. People were starting to gather for the feast, students of all four schools making their way inside.</p><p>“I still can’t believe we won,” Kiara said, beaming.</p><p>“Me either,” Mia agreed.</p><p>James smiled at them both. “I just wanted to say that I’m really proud of you all,” he said, looking between them all at the bunch of misfits who somehow managed to pull together and become a winning team. “I’ll be honest, when we were first got put together I didn’t think we could do it, and you all proved me wrong.”</p><p>“I think we’ve made friends for life,” Yann said, putting his arm around Scorpius. “I wanted to say I’m proud too. James, you made an incredible captain, even if you were a little slack sometimes, but you brought us together as a team.”</p><p>“I didn’t do it on my own,” James reminded. “Point is, we’re a team and that’s what we did, together. We won, <em>together</em>,” he emphasised.</p><p>“And we’re going in there <em>together</em> to prove we deserved it,” Will said, nodding his head.</p><p>James nodded in agreement and the team of seven clasped their hands and walked into the Great Hall as one. They settled down at the end of what was normally the Gryffindor table, though the tables hadn’t been in houses since the arrival of the other schools and waited for Professor McGonagall to call for silence.</p><p>There was a clinking of a fork on a glass that called the hall to attention and McGonagall stood and made her way to the front of the hall.</p><p>“Welcome,” she greeted, her voice amplified. “I think first order of business is to say a huge congratulations to the Hogwarts team for their very well-deserved win,” she smiled, letting the hall erupt in cheers. She then silenced everyone quickly. “A big well done to Ilvermorny for putting up a fight, as well as Castelobruxo and Ohau for their participation. It has been a pleasure hosting all three schools over the past couple of months and we wish you all the very best in the future.”</p><p>Again the hall followed her speech with a well-mannered round of applause.</p><p>“It is time for the handover of the International Schools Quidditch Tournament cup, and here to do it is our very own Minister for Magic, Hermione Granger,” McGonagall announced and handed her podium over to James’ aunt. He caught her eye and waved, receiving a nod in response.</p><p>“Thank you, Headmistress,” Hermione started. “This is the second year of the International Schools Quidditch Tournament that has been hosted and it’s an absolute pleasure to be asked to hand over the cup to the winning school, making it all the more sweeter knowing it is going to my own school.”</p><p>Hermione brandished her wand and waved it over the stand next to her, removing the cloth and revealing the Tournament cup, now engraved with Hogwarts’ name and the winning year. There were a few gasps from around the room and the team looked among themselves with proud smiles.</p><p>“So, without further ado, if the team could make their way to the front of the room,” Hermione asked, waving them over. There was a bunch of clicking noises from reporters cameras as the team stood and made their way over. “Captain and Chaser James Sirius Potter, Chaser Rose Granger-Weasley, Chaser Kiara Goodyear, Keeper Yann Fredericks, Beaters Mia and William and Hudson and finally, Seeker Scorpius Malfoy,” Hermione said, introducing each of them.</p><p>“Congratulations to you all,” she said, placing a small medal over each of their necks before handing the cup to James. The rest of the team gathered around and posed for a few pictures for the reporters, their smiles genuine as the school clapped for their win.</p><p>In that moment, the Hogwarts team ruled the world. They were the kings and the queens, they were winners and they were rulers. It would be this moment they would remember for the rest of their lives, the time they stood with their hands clasped together as the students praised them loudly, basking in all of their glory. James held his head high, a proud smile on his face as he realised he made history with this win and that Hogwarts would go down as the winners of the second International Schools Quidditch Tournament.</p><p>This moment would live with them for the rest of their lives; this moment would show up in photo albums to show to their future kids; this moment would forever mark their victory. And the future may be uncertain and scary, but may these memories break their fall.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Another wonderful drawing by @nicolejustdraws :) Harry and Ginny are very proud of their baby :')<br/>See you all on Monday for the final chapter!!</p>
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<a name="section0013"><h2>13. long live</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is the final chapter! I really hope you've all enjoyed this wild ride that James and my other characters have been on! I would love to hear your thoughts for the ending or what you thought of the whole thing, comments truly make the world go around! And thank you to everyone who has been reading and supporting me throughout all of this, it's means the world, thank you and enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <strong>Four months later</strong>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>James, Zac and Freddie ran from the trophy room giggling like a pair of school girls. They were in there under the illusion that James was visiting the ISQT cup one last time before they graduated, but they were actually attempting to pull off the greatest prank Hogwarts had ever seen. It hadn’t taken long to think of it after the groups first trip to the trophy room the day they returned from Easter break and now that graduation day had arrived, the trio had no worries about pulling the prank off.</p><p>They had eventually convinced Nelly into participating and if she succeeded, she and Professor McGonagall and hopefully more school faculty, would be on their way down here now.</p><p>“I swear I saw a trophy missing,” Nelly’s voice sounded, right on time, around the corner. The three boys hid beneath James’ invisibility cloak to watch the chaos unfold.</p><p>“Are you sure, Miss Nickol?”</p><p>“Positive, headmistress,” she assured as they came to a stop outside the door. Nelly retreated back and allowed the teachers to investigate. She stood innocently to the side, donned in her graduation robes, a sweet smile on her face.</p><p>It was silent for a moment, before a loud crash came from inside the room, followed by the screech of Professor Longbottom. The trophies made a popping noise as they gradually doubled with every touch, the one trophy hitting another and causing that to duplicate, over and over like dominoes. The group of friends tried to hide their laughter as the teachers were forced from the room, before Headmistress McGonagall waved her wand and cast a spell, causing the duplication to come to an end.</p><p>“James Potter, Fred Weasley and Zachary Finnigan-Thomas, wherever you are, please come out,” she asked, a hint of scolding in her tone. As the three boys emerged from the cloak, looking like a deer in the headlights, a smile crept upon Mcgonagall’s face. “As much as I hate to see you all leave my school and onto, <em>hopefully</em>, brighter futures, I will not miss this side of you all quite so much. Though, this one is by far one of your best,” she winked at them. “I’ll see you all in the Great Hall in thirty minutes for your graduation,” she said, waltzing off and leaving the trophy room in complete disarray.</p><p>“Oh,” she called, “and clean up this mess, or you won’t be graduating,” she threatened.</p><p>The four of them groaned at her request, but quickly got to work, ridding the duplication spells from all the trophies before putting them back into place. They were mess of sweat and their shoulders hurt from rushing, but they just managed to make it to the Great Hall in time for their ceremony, their robes slightly askew.</p><p>They rushed to their seats, quickly adjusting each others robes before having to settle down in alphabetical order. James adjusted his glasses and took a deep breath, sitting in his seat and waiting for the ceremony to take place.</p><p>A part of him almost couldn’t believe he made it. In his fifth year, when O.W.L.s got particularly hard, James dreamt of dropping out early and starting a shop like his uncles, but he never knew what type of shop to open. However, once he made it through his O.W.L.s, things started to look up again, even though his sixth year was a little rocky due to Albus’ adventures, he got through that too. Now, here we was, after competing in a world-wide competition and winning, and still passing his N.E.W.Ts with decent grades (even though he nearly slipped a few times), and he was graduating.</p><p>He was leaving Hogwarts and soaring for the real world, starting a job in a place that he loved so much it wouldn’t feel like a job. That was what his Uncle Ron told him one time: <em>live to work, don’t work to live.</em> His Uncle Ron was an Auror once upon a time, but chose a simpler life once he realised he had a passion elsewhere, and James was taking his advice now.</p><p>The ceremony started with a brief speech from Headmistress McGonagall and then the head boy and girl before students were called up one by one to receive their graduation certificate.</p><p>“James Sirius Potter,” his name was called and James took a deep breath before taking to the stage. As he walked across the stage and shook hands with Headmistress McGonagall, he thought of all the memories he’d made here, all the times he’d laughed and cried; all the moments with his friends; all the pranks he’d pulled; all the Quidditch games he’s won; the time he fell down the moving staircases and cut his head open, resulting in a scar on the back of his head; the time he held his brother tightly after he came out of the lake; the time he helped Lily with her herbology homework.</p><p>The walls of this castle held James’ greatest memories. The memories he would eventually look back on, the memories he would tell his children and grandchildren.</p><p>As he exited the stage, he saw his parents cheering him loudly, his siblings smiling widely, his friends standing and clapping and James felt happy. He didn’t think he would feel happy after having his heart broken twice earlier this year, wondering if he’d ever find a love that would last forever. That was before he realised he already had a love that last forever in his friends and in his family. It was different, sure, but it was love. And that was more than James could ever ask for.</p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Another thank you again to @nicolejustdraws) for this adorable drawing of James in his graduation uniform!<br/>Again, thank you all for reading :)</p><p>Also, I know some of you were hoping James would end up with someone, but the truth in the matter is, James' love life is a disaster and doesn't always work out for him. Though, I might be solving that in a potential sequel... ?</p>
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